Summary

The author shares their experience of unknowingly consuming a high-sugar drink while trying to make a healthy choice.

Abstract

In this article, the author discusses their journey of cutting down on added sugars and the lessons they've learned along the way. While trying to make a healthy choice for lunch, they decided to get a sandwich from Subway and a vitamin water, assuming it to be a healthier option. However, after consuming the drink, they discovered that it contained a significant amount of sugar. The author reflects on feeling misled by the drink's label and the importance of being more informed about the sugar content in food and beverages.

Bullet points

The author is on a quest to cut down on added sugars and learns that not everything is as it seems when it comes to making healthy choices.
They decide to get a 6-inch sandwich from Subway and a vitamin water, assuming it to be a healthier option.
After consuming the drink, they discover that it contains a significant amount of sugar, which they were not aware of.
The author feels misled by the drink's label, which emphasizes the vitamin content but does not mention the sugar content.
The author reflects on the importance of being more informed about the sugar content in food and beverages.

My Banishing Sugar Journey

My ‘Healthy’ Drink Choice Lied to Me

When a healthy choice — vitamin water — isn’t as healthy as I thought.

Author image — my ‘healthy’ Vitamin Water

This quest for cutting out added sugars — or at least cutting them down to below the recommended maximum of 25 grams a day — is teaching me so much.

And I find that even when I think I’m being smart about things, I’m still learning that not everything is as it seems.

Last week I’d rushed out to get to work and didn’t take the time to make a sandwich to take with me. I was only working from 10–2 that day, but that’s right through lunch hour. And I can’t go that long without eating something. It doesn’t need to be a full lunch, but if I go without anything, then that messes me all up as my blood sugar starts to drop too low.

I had a Subway coupon, so decided to splurge on a 6” sandwich for $3.99, rather than buying anything inside the store that would cost as much or more and wouldn’t be as good. And yes, there’s bread in the sandwich, meaning carbs, which converts to sugars, but at least the rest of the chicken veggies and things I’d get on it would be healthy.

Thank you, Google, for following me everywhere I go.

I wanted to check first how much sugar was actually in the sandwich I planned on getting.

A few taps of the phone later, I had my answer. 7 grams of added sugar.

All was good. That would easily keep me under 25 grams for the day and I’d get some ‘real food’ along with the sandwich.

I’m learning.

As I was watching her make the sandwich, I thought about a drink. I don’t usually get one. I stopped drinking sodas close to a year ago, and usually only drink water or flavored water. But I remembered that Subway had a good vitamin water in their soda fountain. So, I ordered a large drink too.

After I’d paid for everything and started to turn towards the soda fountain, a quick thought brought me to an immediate halt.

Wait!

“Does the water you have there have any sugar in it?”

The girl had no clue. In fact, she hardly even understood what I was asking. So, she turned and asked the other lady behind the counter. She didn’t know either. Both of them seemed dumbfounded and didn’t even know how to look and see if the drink had any sugar.

But did I pull out my phone and Google it to find out myself, like I’d done with the sandwich question about ten minutes earlier?

No, I did not.

Besides, I’d already paid for the drink. So, I went ahead and filled up the cup, of course the large cup, with the Acai-Blueberry-Pomegranate Vitamin Water.

Vitamin Water.

It’s a healthy choice.

I knew it and felt so proud of myself for choosing the healthy option over the sugar-laden sodas.

Until I got to the car to eat my sandwich.

That’s when I pulled out my phone and actually looked for the answer to my question.

Oh yes. There is sugar!

Author image — screenshot of the sugar content of the drink

Not nearly as much as a soda. 24 ounces of soda would contain about 2 ½ times as much sugar as this. So, it was still a healthier choice, but not a healthy choice.

The 32 grams here, along with the 7 grams for the sandwich now has me up to 39 grams — which is much more than the ‘less than 25 grams’ I was aiming for.

Okay, I’ll admit it. I went ahead and drank it. After all, I’d paid for it, so wasn’t going to dump it out in the parking lot. But what I did was to make sure to at least sip on it slowly and made the drink last over two hours as I finished up working.

At least that way the sugar would be rationed out over a two-hour period, instead of being dumped into my system in about 20 minutes.

And with each sip, I savored it, knowing that this is the last time this tasty, delicious beverage will touch my lips.

Technically the label, or the name, didn’t lie.

There’s water in it.

There are vitamins in it.

They just neglected to mention the ‘sugar’ part. They call it ‘Vitamin Water’ which makes it sound like such a healthy option. And with that, even though they technically didn’t lie, I still feel lied to.

And I realize that I need to keep getting smarter.