When you’ve been on TikTok this month, you’ll have heard individuals speaking a few viral new drink on supply at Panera Bread referred to as Charged Lemonade. It is available in three flavors, every of which incorporates huge quantities of caffeine and added sugar.
Content material creator Sarah Baus posted a video concerning the Mango Yuzu Citrus taste on December 8, and shared the impact the drink had on her. Within the video, Baus explains that she likes doing work at Panera Bread—which, notably, presents free refills on drinks—versus working from house. She goes on to say that, throughout current work periods, she’s discovered herself getting “4 or 5” refills of Charged Lemonade. However after studying what, precisely, is within the drink, she was floored: “This needs to be unlawful,” she says within the video.
So…what’s the cope with Charged Lemonade? The Mango Yuzu Citrus and Strawberry Lemon Mint varieties every comprise a whopping 260 milligrams (mg) of caffeine per 20-fluid–ounce serving, whereas the third possibility, the Fuji Apple Cranberry taste, is available in at a mere 259 mg. (To place that into context, an 8-ounce cup of espresso sometimes comprises anyplace between 80 to 100 mg of caffeine. An 8.4-ounce Pink Bull has 80 mg of caffeine, whereas different power drinks can sometimes go as much as 250 mg per serving.)
Moreover, the Mango Yuzu Citrus Charged Lemonade comprises 82 grams of sugar; the opposite two flavors comprise 65 grams. (FYI: The max quantity of added sugar an individual ought to goal to have in a day is 25 to 36 grams, per the American Coronary heart Affiliation.)
Needless to say these numbers account for one 20-ounce, “common” serving of Charged Lemonade—if Baus actually did drink 5 regular-size cups of the Mango Yuzu Citrus taste in a row, she’d have consumed a staggering 1,300 mg of caffeine and 410 grams of sugar. For reference, you’d need to drink greater than eight tall Americanos from Starbucks to devour that a lot caffeine and eat practically three pints of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream to absorb that a lot sugar. “I made a decision I’m going to water them down,” Baus jokes after explaining what she discovered about Charged Lemonade. “I really feel just like the Hulk.”
Whereas consuming Charged Lemonade isn’t essentially harmful, per se, it might be brutal if you happen to’re significantly delicate to caffeine, Keri Gans, a New York–based mostly registered dietitian nutritionist and writer of The Small Change Food plan, tells SELF. “It’s very individualized,” Gans says, explaining that caffeine impacts individuals in a different way. For instance, some individuals have to chop themselves off after two small-ish cups of espresso every morning, however different individuals can drink espresso nicely into the night and nonetheless handle to go to sleep at an inexpensive hour.
The identical goes for the caffeine content material in Charged Lemonade, in accordance with Gans. “Some individuals, that one serving could have no impact on them. Different individuals may positively get the jitters; they might get anxious,” she says. You need to attempt to cap your caffeine consumption at 400 mg per day, per the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA). Which means if a single Charged Lemonade is the one caffeinated drink you’ve gotten in a day, you’ll in all probability be positive (until you recognize you’re extremely delicate to caffeine). However if you happen to get a refill and/or have just a few cups of espresso earlier than or after you down one, you may be overdoing it.
