‘Find an alternative to caffeine, which actually slows the production of building our cells that help keep us looking young and beautiful. Become addicted to feeling naturally energized by replacing the sugar-filled, caffeinated drinks with regular exercise and a healthy, vitamin-filled diet.”  This was a tip on the Murad Beauty Facebook page.  (Murad is a doctor made beauty regimen):

Now, I happen to like coffee a lot and it keeps me from eating, but I am writing this particle blog piece especially since recently a Skinny-Rules follower had a comment about my blog on the high carb and sugar content in Starbucks Refresher Via mixes.  The commenter was adamant that the drink was good for you because it had Stevia and natural fruit juice.

My position on the carb UNfriendly Via Refreshers:

1.  They have caffeine.

2. They have way too much fruit juice, and there is no need to have that much sugar–albeit natural or not.  They are  just too much sugar at once and high carb content.

3.  There are other choices that are just better options.  Besides water–there are other mixes that have as little as ZERO sugar and carbs, to the mixes that have Stevia and are only 6 g of carbs, not 17g of carbs  compared to the Starbucks ones.

I went to Target and took pictures of the many stacks of choices that are there.  Some are made with Aspartame, some with Splenda.  Some with Truvia (mixed with Stevia and are the higher in carb content at 6g of carbs.

There is a great product though that my sister-in-law shared with me that is made of all natural great products and has no carbs and only 1 g of sugar (Starbucks Via Refreshers had 17g of carbs and 11g of sugar (about 3 sugar cubes).  TRUE LEMON!

True Lemon  is not the easiest to find.  You can look online, buy online, and I did manage to find it at Wal-Mart, of all places.  All True products are 100% natural with no artificial ingredients or sweeteners, preservatives,sodium or gluten. To view the nutritional information of all True products, click here (http://www.truelemon.com/cooking5.cfm)

HERE IS THE KICKER!  You can’t find any information on the Starbucks site on what is in the Via Refreshers, but you can see everything in these other drinks online.  So, what is Starbucks hiding?  I say that if you can’t read what you are drinking or eating, then it probably isn’t good for you.

So, next time you want to mix something in your water, read the label and no that there are so many alternatives that are healthy and are not going to add extra pounds onto your body.  You don’t need to have carbs in your fluid.  Get it in your food.  And watch your caffeine intake to keep youthful looking!

Here is a locator for True Lemon:  http://www.truelemon.com/store-locator.html