PSL: Plethora of Sugar Latte

Some thoughts on our favorite fall drink and it’s sugar content

Look+at+me%2C+poisoning+my+body+with+sugar.+ymmmmm...

Look at me, poisoning my body with sugar. ymmmmm…

Annabelle Lingbeck, Staff Writer

It’s fall, which means sweaters, Halloween, and everyone’s favorite seasonal drink, a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Personally, they taste like fall flavored dirt, but America loves them. I’m sure almost all of us have posted a picture on social media at some point in our lives with a sugary drink and some colorful fallen leaves in the background, trying to achieve that perfect fall aesthetic.

Twelve-year-old me, you’re extremely guilty of that one.

Now, Starbucks can be known for putting ridiculous amounts of sugar in all their drinks, but the one that takes the cake for sheer excessiveness in the sugar department is none other than our beloved PSL.

Want to guess its sugar content? Ten grams? Twenty?

Try fifty.

Yes, you heard me right, fifty grams of sugar in that one drink. Is it worth it? Probably not.

According to the American Heart Association, the daily added sugar intake for a female should be around twenty-five grams, and for a male it should be around thirty-eight. That means that your one grande pumpkin drink in the morning could potentially have double the amount of sugar healthy for your body.

What can you have that won’t be quite as high in the sugar content? Here are a few ideas.

First, you can get yourself two Snickers bars. At twenty grams of sugar each, you’re way under that fifty in your coffee. If you’re not feeling the candy bar, try three servings of Lucky Charms. Three bowls of delicious childhood memories and you’re only at thirty-eight grams of sugar.

If you want to be on the healthier side, grab some strawberries. It takes eighty-three of them to get you to the fifty grams of sugar in a PSL, so feel free to eat your fill. How about five bags of fruit snacks? Two Hershey’s chocolate bars, perhaps? Maybe eating fifty avocados is more your style.

I think you can see what I’m getting at here.

How worth is a PSL, really? Of course, sugar isn’t the only deciding factor in what makes a nutritional, balanced diet, but think about what you’re putting in your body the next time you stop by Starbucks for your favorite fall latte.