In recent years high school students have been bringing refreshers to school almost every day. Refreshers are a fruit flavored caffeinated drink that are advertised as “lighter than a coffee or soda” and are primarily sold at Starbucks and Dunkin’.
Although the drinks are advertised as healthier than coffee, it is actually much worse for you than coffee. A refresher may contain anywhere from 19 to 72 grams of sugar. Starting the day with a large amount of sugar can cause serious health issues. The daily recommended amount of added sugar for a teenager in a day is 25 grams, most kids daily refreshers are double or triple the amount of recommended sugar. Consuming this excess sugar can result in heart problems, weight gain, lowered energy levels and it can increase the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.
One can customize the fruit flavor and base of the refresher. At Dunkin’, one can choose between Mango Pineapple or Strawberry Dragonfruit flavoring all year long along with some seasonal specials such as blueberry and golden hour. At Starbucks people can always pick from strawberry açaí or mango dragonfruit and during holidays there are more options such as cranberry. At both Dunkin and Starbucks one can choose water, lemonade, or and green tea as a base for your drink. Most students order a refresher with strawberry flavoring and a lemonade base in a medium from Dunkin or venti from Starbucks, which are both 24 oz. This order contains 48 grams of sugar at Starbucks and 54 grams at Dunkin’.
According to Harvard Medical School, people who get 17% to 21% of their daily calories from added sugar increase their risk of dying from heart diseases by 38%. For the average person, a refresher alone could be around 12% of someone’s daily calories and mainly consists of added sugars. Most Americans will consume more added sugars from processed foods with hidden sugars throughout the day along with the sugar in the refresher.Starting the day with large amounts of sugar will lead one to reach the 17% to 21% of sugars and increase risk of health issues.
According to the National Library of Medicine, if you consume more sugar, especially in the morning, you will have a stronger sensation of hunger throughout the whole day. This is because consuming an excess amount of sugar causes your body to release fructose in one’s body and can cause them to have a resistance to leptin, the hormone that tells the brain they are not hungry. Without leptin you will experience increased appetite and constant hunger. Your increased hunger also puts you at a high risk to develop type two diabetes because more fat in your abdominal area causes both insulin resistance and B-cell dysfunction.
Drinking a refresher on occasion is completely fine, but recently kids have been consuming them multiple times a week. When someone is drinking excess sugar every morning, it will increase hunger cravings for the rest of the day. Also, eating excess sugar everyday can cause one to get addicted to eating more sugar on the daily. When someone gets addicted to sugar they will greatly increase the likeness of weight gain, heart disease and type two diabetes. Refreshers are only really harmful for you when you are drinking them a lot, make sure to have a healthy balance so you can still enjoy a refresher every once and a while and have no health issues just make sure it doesn’t become a habit.
