How healthy is boba tea?

ASAM NEWS

Walk past many boba tea shops in the San Francisco Bay Area and its common to see a line out the door. The drink is especially popular among young Asian Americans.
While green tea is considered a healthy drink filled with anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory components, reports indicate that boba or bubble tea may be a different story, according to the Insider.

Bubble tea contains about 300-400 calories due to all the added sugar and syrups added for flavoring, not to mention the tapioca pearls. Boba also lacks any minerals, vitamins or fiber. In fact, calling it “tea” may be a misnomer.

“Bubble tea, however is not just tea … It’s like sugar disguised as tea,” said Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietician to the Insider.

Reader's Digest explained how the bubbles are round pieces of tapioca, called "tapioca pearls," which are made from starch extracted from cassava root, a nutty-flavoured vegetable grown in South America.

Although this could be mistaken for being healthy, the pearls are boiled, before sugar and honey is added for flavor, and thus the "bubbles" alone could have 160 calories per quarter cup serving.

“One of the most popular bubble tea shops generally serves their drinks in 500-ml cups, and they will have 10 or more teaspoons of sugar in them. A 600-ml Coke has about 15 teaspoons of sugar in it, so it’s pretty on par with soft drink.” dietitian Milly Smith said to the Honey Coach.

Both Smith and Taub-Dix agree, traditional green tea is the best choice for tea drinkers.

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Health: Boba may be bad for you

Those who love these boba drinks should cut back, say health advocates.

OH, NO! Boba drinks can lead to diabetes. The popular sweet drink, also known as Bubble Drinks, which has those tapioca balls floating around in them, can have up to 36 grams of sugar, or as much as a can of Coke.

Too much sugar in your diet can cause diabetes. Medical experts have already warned us about too much white rice can lead to Type 2 diabetes. Sugary drinks are the single biggest source of dietary calories and a major contributor to Type 2 diabetes.

“There’s a model minority myth for public health: If you’re skinny, you’re healthy,” says Scott Chan, program director of the Asian Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance, one of the groups behind a “Rethink Your Asian Drink” campaign.

RELATED: Study says white rice can lead to Type 2 diabetes 

While Asian Americans have a rate of diabetes at 10 percent (compared with 7 percent of whites) a recent study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) shared that more than half of Asian Americans with diabetes are undiagnosed.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the maximum amount of added sugars you should eat in a day are:

Men: 150 calories per day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons)Women: 100 calories per day (25 grams or 6 teaspoons)

Americans consume 200 to 300 more calories each day than we did 30 years ago, says the Alliance on its website. Nearly half of these extra calories come from sugar-sweetened drinks. More calories mean extra weight. One can of soda a day can add up to 10 pounds or more of weight gain in a year. But what happens when we look beyond just mainstream drinks like soda?

It's not just boba drinks. All those fruity drinks sold at many of the Asian groceries are just as bad. Many people know drinking soda everyday is not good for your health, but Asian drinks can be just as bad. For example, boba milk tea can have as many calories as a McDonalds double cheeseburger.