Surveys show that the general public thinks that vitamin water, fruit juice drinks and sports drinks are healthful options for themselves and their children. Here's a comparison of the number of teaspoons of added sugar in a variety of common drinks.

Images:

Note these images reflect the amount of added sugar per container and have had natural sugars deducted from the totals. Natural sugars include naturally occurring glucose and fructose in fruit based drinks and lactose in milk.

Soda / Soft Drink, 375ml can = 10 tsp

Cordial mixed 1 :5, 200ml glass = 4 tsp

Energy Drink - 600ml = 12 tsp, 300ml = 6 tsp

Vitamin Water, 600ml = 5 1/2 tsp

Sports Drink, 600ml = 11 tsp

Iced Tea, 600ml = 7 tsp

Fruit juice drink, 250ml = 6 tsp

Flavoured milk, 300ml = 4 tsp, 600ml = 8 tsp

Vegetable juice, 200l = 0 tsp

100% juice, 250ml = 0tsp

Note: We recommend that 100% juice be limited to 1 glass per day and is better substituted by 2 pieces of fruit for the value of the fibre contained in the whole fruit.

Our previous article identified that the target for children is 7 tsp per day. This could be used up by a low sugar cereal at breakfast and a cup of fruit juice drink at lunch. How much sugar do your children or grandchildren drink?

And this is why the only thing I drink is water! Besides having that little bit of actual fruit once in a while tastes so much better than a glass of juice.

Amanda, Thanks for this great visual. It always helps to see an image to help understand exactly how much sugar we are talking about. It is shocking how much sugar is in some of these beverages. Coffee beverages are another high-sugar beverage – for example, a latte can have 20 or more grams of sugar. Another way to help put these high-sugar beverages in perspective is to compare them to sweets – something like a cookie might have 20 grams of sugar – or less than the amount in a soda.

My son created something very similar for his 4th-grade science project:

Makes me so proud!

Hi Alex that is a great project - was that inspired by my pics or completed previously? That Super Big Gulp is shocking. I think the biggest problem with that drink is that it is in an open cup with a straw, so there's no expectation that you're going to consume it over an extended period of time - and we're all naturally reluctant to put a tub still partly full of liquid into a trash bin - it feels wrong to do it, so people can be seen near the bin gulping down the last glugs so they can throw it away.