Pellegrino sparkling mineral water 

A tasty treat! 

Washed down with Pellegrino sparkling mineral water.

Most people are quite aware that Coke, Pepsi, and other sodas are liquid sugar bombs. Unfortunately, what replaces it often isn’t much better! These are two of the most common beverages I see at meetings and in workplace refrigerators, provided by what I can only assume are well-meaning employers. 

Are these fruity drinks any better? Well, to put it in context, consider that Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends Canadians limit free sugars to 10% of total daily calorie intake, and ideally less than 5%. (Free sugars include all sugar added to foods, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices.)

For someone eating 2000 calories per day, 5-10% would work out to no more than 50g of sugar, and ideally we’d be closer to 25g. A teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams, so the recommendation translates into no more than about 6-12 teaspoons of free sugar a day.

A can of Coke (355mL) 39g 10 tsp of sugar

Can of San Pellegrino Sparkling Fruit Beverage (330mL) 32g 8 tsp of sugar

One extra note about San Pellegrino’s wholesome-sounding “sparkling fruit beverage” from Italy. (“An Italian tradition,” and a Nestle product, Canadian readers might be interested to know.) Read the ingredients closely, and you’ll see that it not only gets free sugar from orange juice, but there is also added sugar in the ingredients list. And it’s basically not a significant source of any nutrient. But hey, at least there is no artificial coloring.

A better choice would be their plain Carbonated Natural Mineral Water.