Burger King or BK is promoting 4 new beverages and this weekend they are all available for one dollar. I did not realize that they were going to be on sale when I searched them out. I recently saw an ad for Real Fruit Smoothies. I thought, a less nutrition focused consumer, might see this ad and take it for granted that a smoothie made from real fruit would be a nutritious, low calorie treat. Unfortunately, the nutrition information that BK provides, leaves out the items that could help us assess nutritional value. I think, however, it is a safe bet that IF the drinks were high in something we need, like potassium, vitamin D, calcium or fiber, it would be mentioned in the promotional language.
Instead, the four new drinks, two smoothies and two frappes have an average of 415 calories 6 g of saturated fat and 55 grams of sugar. But the averages are misleading. The fruit drinks don't have any saturated fat, so that means the coffee drinks have 12 grams of sat fat each. Not to fret, the high fat drinks do have less sugar. The coffee drinks have 49 g of sugar and the fruit have 60 and 63g (banana has the most sugar).
Because all of the drinks have below 3 g of fiber, the coffee drinks having none, they qualify as sugar sweetened beverages. SSBs are ones we should avoid due to their empty calories which add substantially to over consumption in the American diet. The drinks are also a poor source of protein. In essence, a person would waste 300 to 500 of their daily calorics (because they would still have to meet their nutritional goals but have only 1200 or so calories left to do so).
BTW, this information relates to the medium size drinks.
And thanks BK for adding to my 'evidence' that calorically dense foods are cheap, convenient and heavily promoted.
I wonder if I could hire you guys to sell fruits and vegetables for the government?
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