Cough Drops
Every now and then people get sick and experience the common sore throat. When people have a cough and sore throat and live a busy life like any New Yorker does, it’s easy to reach for a cough drop to temporarily soothe the pain, and they taste like candy so that makes taking the medicine a bit less harsh. What people don’t commonly know is that a cough drop is a fancy form of candy with some mint or other herbs in it to help relieve a cough or sore throat.
There are brands that have come out with natural/organic/no added sugar/made with real fruit cough drops, but as Voltage often mentions, the more “healthy” stuff written on a package means it’s actually not that healthy for you at all—it’s important to read the ingredients and see what’s really in the cough drop.
Brands like Halls are known for making very sugary flavors like tropical twist and very very berry. They have so much sugar that they taste like noting other than candy, which some people commonly buy instead of candy. What people aren’t realizing is just as people can be addicted to medicines, sugar has the same affect on the brain—it’s addictive.
Other brands that pride themselves on being natural and the healthier option for cough drops, such as Ricola still have a significant amount of sugar in them. Here’s the breakdown: A standard package of Ricola cough drops has 24 drops in it, and each drop contains about 3 grams of sugar. Keeping in mind that Sugar Savvy means 24 grams of sugar in 24 hours, it’s easy to down half a package in a day, which would mean 36grams of sugar in a day just from 12 cough drops. This also means that as a whole, the package of cough drops has 72 grams of sugar in it.
When one is addicted to a substance, such as sugar, they would think nothing of consuming half or more of a package of cough drops to relieve some pain or discomfort while they are suffering from cough or sore throat, but that’s exactly what the problem is. It’s hard for people to stop at just one.
Many companies, including Halls and Ricola have now made sugar free options. Next time that sore throat or cough is bothering you and you’re on the go, reach for the sugar free option, and you’ll easily save yourself anywhere from 3-72grams of sugar in a day just from something designed to help you feel better when you are feeling under the weather.