Love Trendy Drinks? Check Their Sugar and Calorie Content.

Recently, a trendy iced tea ("Minuman kekinian") was protested by netizens for being excessively sweet. Instead of providing an explanation, the producer sent a legal summons to the consumer who protested the sugar content of their product on Twitter.

A nutritional study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) shows that a single serving of a trendy drink, particularly boba tea, in a 16-ounce size exceeds the upper limit of added sugar intake recommended by the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. The high calorie and sugar content of boba drinks poses a public health problem because it has the potential to worsen the childhood obesity epidemic.

Findings show that a 16-ounce boba drink, with just milk tea and boba, easily exceeds the upper limit of the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations. A 16-ounce boba drink typically consists of a "basic" boba drink and is accompanied by other ingredients, such as jelly and egg pudding, which can result in a total calorie count far exceeding 16% of total energy intake.

Meanwhile, larger-sized boba drinks with all the ingredients exceed 500 calories, contributing 25% of the total daily calorie intake. Thus, boba drinks can increase an individual's risk of obesity.

The sugar and calorie content of trendy boba drinks, based on NCBI findings, is even higher than that of soda. A 16-ounce trendy boba drink has 38 grams of sugar and 299 calories. Meanwhile, the calorie content of soda, such as orange soda, is 227 calories and cola is 200 calories.

(read: Majority of Indonesian Citizens Frequently Consume Sweet Foods and Drinks)