When you have diabetes, sugary summertime drinks quickly raise your blood sugar. Here are calorie counts for some of our favorite cool summer drinks to help you make healthier choices.
After spending a long day out in the sweltering summer sun, it might be tempting to grab the nearest icy beverage to help cool off. However, some of the most popular summertime beverages have a surprising amount of sugar.
In fact, from cocktails to snowballs, oftentimes these sweet and icy drinks can contain an entire meal’s worth of calories, but offer minimal nutritional value. For example, one Starbuck’s Frappucino can have anywhere from 180 to 600 calories! That’s more than what’s recommended for the average healthy lunch.
When you have diabetes, sugary drinks quickly raise your blood sugar. In fact, when your blood sugar is below 70 (which is too low) 4-6 ounces of fruit juice or regular soft drink can quickly bring your glucose back up into a safe range.
If your blood sugar is not low, drinking sugar sweetened drinks will send your glucose too high and zap your energy.
Nutritious alternatives such as flavored waters and teas contain far less sugar and calories, but are just as delicious, satisfying and convenient to grab when you’re on the go. With a little preparation and creativity, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a healthy and refreshing drink that is just as good for you as it tastes!
Summertime Cool Drink Calorie Count
Frozen Coffee
Depending on the size, one Starbucks Frappucino (not light) can have anywhere from 180-600 calories and 50-60 grams of sugar. Opt for a small Frappuccino light and your frozen treat is only 90 calories and 18 grams of sugar/carbohydrate.
ICEE’s
ICEE’s are a classic summertime treat both kids and adults enjoy. The standard small 8-ounce ICEE has 117 calories and 29 grams of sugar (that’s a little over 7 teaspoons of sugar). Thinking about going for the adult sized version? A 32-ounce ICEE will have 468 calories and 116 grams of sugar. If you are craving an ICEE, stick with the small.
Snow Cone (also known as Snowballs)
Finding the specific nutrition breakdown of a standard snowball was a little more challenging as this will vary based on how much syrup is used. What we do know is that 1-ounce of syrup contains approximately 70 calories and 16 grams of sugar.
A small snow cone will contain anywhere from 2 - 4 ounces depending on how much syrup is used. Therefore a snow cone can be anywhere from 140 -500 calories depending on the amount of syrup used. Add in the baked dessert toppings trending today or ice cream/condensed milk stuffing, and you are easily adding another 100 - 300 calories.
Sports Drinks (Gatorade, Powerade, etc)
Originally developed for athletes who were losing a lot of sweat through exercise, these sports drinks are best kept for high intensity exercise and when working in extreme heat conditions. One bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade has 140 calories and 34 grams of sugar.
Summer Cocktails
One generic mojito has about 200 calories, 25 grams of carbs, and about 24 grams of sugar.
An eight-ounce daiquiri is about 450 calories and if you thinking about super sizing it and getting the 32 ounce cup, you are looking at close to 1800 calories!
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