The Amount of Sugar in Vegas Slushie's Will Blow Your Mind...
/If you've been to Vegas I am almost 100% sure you've either tried or have seen people drinking GIANT alcoholic slushie's in colorful plastic tubes! Some slushies even come with a strap connected so you can hold it around your neck (just in case you want to double fist it or eat a burger at the same time) !
I was in Vegas two weeks ago and couldn't get more than a half block down the strip before coming across a stand that sold these slushie's and at least a handful of people sucking them down! I started to wonder, how much sugar is in one of these bad boys? And is the amount of sugar even worth the buzz? So naturally, the food detective in me, forever inspired by The Food Babe, had to investigate! I slyly popped into one of the slushie bars, snapped a pic and asked the girl making them how exactly the mango slushie is made. She replied by saying "we add 1 oz of rum to every 12oz's and fill the rest with mango puree." BINGO!
The hubs and I went home and began scouring the internet to see if anyone else had exposed or posted the ingredients online but there wasn't a SINGLE article. So we did some more digging and found the exact mango mix they use in Vegas (see pic below) with the nutrition facts we were looking for! We quickly crunched the numbers and came out with this shocking sugar number. Are you ready to have your MIND BLOWN?
In one standard 25oz Vegas Mango Slushie there is a terrifying 276 GRAMS OF SUGAR (not counting the residual sugars from the 2oz of rum--which is definitely not worth the miniature buzz you'll get)! Oh and did I mention, there is a 50oz size?? I'll let you do that math...
Check out the Nutrition FACTS Too--- DO you recognize a single one of those ingredients? MAy as well be written in a foreign language!
Why does this matter?? Well for one, the American Heart Association, recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (24 grams) of sugar for women and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men per day. The average American already consumes 22 teaspoons (88 grams) which is about 4X the amount we should be having. So to put this in perspective, if you gulp down JUST ONE standard size Vegas slushie, you are getting over 10 times the amount of sugar you should have in a day without taking a single bite of food!! And let's be real, this drink is probably not the only sweet item being enjoyed in the day-- all you have to do is take a look at the line at Taco Bell's new Taqueria (serves alcohol) or the FatBurger with connected slushie bar to prove my point...
YES! I absolutely believe in balance, a life free from restriction, calorie-counting and deprivation, but I also believe in a life free from diabetes, cancer, depression, obesity, acne, sleep deprivation, and addiction! My intention is not to make you feel bad or to say you should never eat sugar again, but IT IS to provide you with the information you deserve to make choices that support your goals. The food industry has a funny way of hiding nutrition facts from us because they know that once we learn the truth, their profits will plummet... which is not by ANY food industry standards, cool. Let's get American's hooked on sugar so they become slave to the white powder-- a powder that is now proving to be even more addicting than crack cocaine (what is it about white powder?)!
When you break free from sugar addiction, you learn what it's like not to be constantly craving, you feel the surge of real (Red Bull-free) energy, start fitting into clothing sizes that make you feel confident, and break free from the prison of obsession with food. If you're interested in learning more about how to switch sugar out for real food and how to actually enjoy it, message me and let's talk! And in the mean time, feel free to comment below! What foods/drinks have you found with outrageous amounts of sugar? What do you find the most challenging/easiest about cutting back on adding sugar? Let's keep this conversation going!
The 50 oz size Slushie-- Over 500 Grams of sugar!