3 February 2019

FizzFreeFeb - is it a good idea? What about cider? (@NLi10)

There is a new initiative int he UK to help with the epidemic of childhood obesity called FizzFreeFeb.  Essentially they are encouraging children to cut out all fizzy drinks for 28 days and see what happens.  It's an interesting idea, and if the parents have just finished the alcohol free January thing then it's probably fairly easy to enforce.

But should we be joining in?


I tend to join in with the Public Health initiatives whenever I can.  Late on the 31st I had my last fizzy drink - a 'rare' blue Fanta (it's grapefruit so looks like lemon Fanta if it's not in the bottle).  I dislike real grapefruit but this is zingy enough to be fun.

First weekend of Feb I find myself at a show (Fight Club Pro for people who like the wrestling) and usually I'd have three cans of Pepsi (total 108g of sugar & 405 calories).  Instead - for the health and sugar reasons I switched to two cans of Dark Fruits.  Do you think I cut down by doing this?


Despite drinking 880ml of the stuff over 2 cans - and it being sweeter than the regular Strongbow - there is actually 35.2g of Carbs here - most of which is probably sugars.  That's basically a third!  Granted the total calories is 352 because of the alcohol content which is still a touch lower, but due to oxidative priority until the alcohol has gone from your system your body isn't going to even begin to burn that sugar off. Oddly though this was the lower-sugar and calorie choice.


The following day we were out on an RSPB reserve watching the birds skate around on the frozen lake.  Afterwards I decided that I really felt dehydrated so cheated and picked up a sparkling drink to go with my tea and two little (very good) snack bars.


As this is almost a Fentimans quality drink I assumed that it was closer to the low end of the sugar range with all the flavour coming from the other bits.


Here, if we factor up to 330 ml like a can of Pepsi we have 132 calories vs 135 and 32.67g of sugar vs 36g of sugar.  So all things considered they are basically what the Pepsi values are.

Fentimans itself has 7.8g of carbs per 100ml which is 25.74g per 'can' of 330ml, which is lower again, but still a hefty amount.  The sweeter Cherry cola seems to contain the same amount which is surprising (it was higher before the sugar tax).

I think that as an adult I won't be fully participating in the FizzFreeFeb, but for the sake of my teeth and waistline I may cut back a little and switch to just having more tea (without sugar of course!)

2 comments:

Frurry said...

the blue fanta (shokata) is actually elderflower and lemon, one of my faves

NLi10 said...

Ha - amazing - I never knew!