As a kid (and/or as an adult), few things are more exciting than the selection of candy at the checkout line of a grocery store. So many choices! And yet, none of them are exactly what you'd call healthy choices.
For instance, there's the standard 1.55 ounce Hershey bar. It does have some calcium, iron and protein. It also has 220 calories, 35 miligrams of sodium and 24 grams of sugar.
Sugar, naturally, is a major component of practically any candy bar. A regular Snickers bar has 27 grams of sugar. A regular pack of M&M's has 30 grams, and a regular Milky Way has 31 grams.
However, many beverages actually contain more sugar than the typical candy bar. For instance, an All Natural Snapple might sound like a healthy beverage. However, a 20-ounce bottle of Snapple Raspberry Tea still contains 4 grams of sugar.
As a sports beverage, you might expect Gatorade to be low in sugar, but that's not necessarily the case. A 12-ounce serving of Gatorade has 21 grams, but the typical Gatorade bottle is 32 ounces. So if you drink the whole thing, it's really 56 grams of sugar.
But what about Vitamin Water? Surely a product with vitamin in the name must be the epitome of health, right? Well, while the product does deliver on its promise of providing many vitamins, a 20-ounce bottle also contains 32 grams of sugar.
If juice is naked, that implies that there's nothing there except for the juice itself. But there's still plenty of room for sugar. A 15.2-ounce bottle of Naked Berry Blast contains 49 grams.
Relatively speaking, orange juice isn't so bad sugar-wise. An 8-ounce serving of Minute Maid Orange Juice contains 24 grams of sugar. However, many bottles are more than 8 ounces, so be careful.
Red Bull is known for its high amount of caffeine, but what about sugar? In an 8.4 ounce can of Red Bull, the amount of sugar is 27 grams. So its lower than some other beverages...but it also comes in a smaller quantity.
Not surprisingly, the Starbucks Frappuccino is also filled with sugar...but perhaps less than you might think. If you get a Tall (12 ounce) glass with whole milk and whipped cream, it comes out to 42 grams of sugar. But that amount goes way up if you get a Grande or Venti.
When you move to soft drinks, things don't get any better. If you get a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi, you'll be consuming 69 grams of sugar. If you get an 8-ounce can instead, you're still in the sugar range of a typical candy bar.
Want to cut back on sugar? In that case, you could switch from Pepsi to Coke, and see your sugar consumption drop by a very tiny amount. A 20-ounce bottle of Coke still has 65 grams of sugar.
Compared to colas, Sprite may appear to be crisper and healthier. After all, it's completely free of caffeine. And a 20-ounce bottle does have much less sugar than the colas...but still has 38 grams total.
Jamba Juice seems like it might serve healthy drinks, but not if you get the Peanut Butter Moo’d. The first hint of that should have been the name itself. But in case you weren't sure, an Original Size Peanut Butter Moo’d has 109 grams of sugar.
A healthier option at Jamba Juice is the Peach Perfection. But you're still not home free if you get it. A 16-ounce Peach Perfection still has 42 grams of sugar.