Is there bubble tea even diabetics can love? Low-sugar, low-calorie tweaks are being made
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Is there bubble tea even diabetics tin love? Low-saccharide, low-calorie tweaks are being made
Chimera tea sales in Singapore have already outstripped those of Coke and coffee on one commitment platform. But this drinkable comes at a toll, and the program Talking Betoken looks into the quest for healthier versions.
Talking Indicate host Steven Chia drinks chimera tea for a calendar month to observe out what it does to the trunk.
10 Jan 2022 06:15AM (Updated: 10 Jan 2022 07:16AM)
SINGAPORE: If Rajen Manicka and his team have their style, Singaporeans may be able to enjoy healthier bubble tea without sacrificing that well-loved taste and chewiness.
Australian-listed visitor Holista CollTech, where he is the chief executive officer, is partnering SunFresh Fruit Hub from Malaysia to produce chimera tea with the same sweetness but fewer calories and health issues.
Holista claims that its bubble tea is suitable even for diabetics, every bit one of its healthier ingredients is the tapioca pearls.
Nearly all bubble tea pearls are made of tapioca starch, but Holista mixes the starch with a patented formula made of guar gum, fenugreek (a seasoning used in many Indian curries), lentils and ladies' fingers.
The resultant pearls, said Rajen, are withal "chewy and overnice, simply they don't digest so rapidly and so easily" to cause a fasten in blood sugar, which is normally stored every bit fat.
"So y'all have the pleasure in your mouth, but not the damage in your body," he added.
Holista'due south efforts to convert a concoction with a high glycaemic index (GI) — a measure of how apace nutrient releases sugar into the blood — to a low-GI version are part of a wider quest for healthier bubble tea.
As the drink rides a wave of renewed popularity, the programme Talking Point finds out how big a health cost information technology might behave and whether there are indeed constructive alternatives.
WATCH: What does bubble tea do to your body? The xxx-day drinking test (3:07)
'DELETERIOUS Furnishings'
Bubble tea arrived in Singapore from Taiwan in the 1990s. And in 2019, milk tea from chimera tea stores became the about popular drinkable society on Deliveroo's platform, overtaking Coca-Cola and coffee.
But a 500 ml serving of milk tea with pearls contains eight teaspoons of sugar, 33 per cent above the World Health Organisation's recommended daily intake for adults and children for additional health benefits.
The tapioca pearl toppings lonely make up close to half of the calorie content: 156 out of the 335 calories.
READ: Singapore's love affair with bubble tea - an obsession that will never die?
READ: Ode to bubble tea (or why I bought a 3kg bag of tapioca pearls)
"Over time, a loftier intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates in the class of the toppings can atomic number 82 to deleterious effects in the blood," noted family physician Vincent Chia.
"Carbohydrate intake has been associated with increased inflammation in the claret stream, which is once more a bad thing."
He added that sugar spikes and the fluctuations in claret sugar from frequent consumption of chimera tea can atomic number 82 to mood changes and fatigue.
At that place is besides caffeine — 100 to 160 mg in a 400 ml cup of pearl milk tea, similar to a standard cup of coffee and more than in a serving of carbonated drink, said Wong Weng Wai, a lecturer in practical food science at Temasek Polytechnic.
"When the caffeine effects wear off, you'll feel tired, and (you) will start to … crave for more caffeine and so that you stay warning," he added.
"If you have as well much (caffeine), and then that would cause other effects, like hypertension, headache, dehydration and sometimes … an elevated heartbeat as well as high blood pressure. Simply these effects vary with the individual."
Paediatrician Lim Yang Chern from Thomson Paediatric Centre advised children under 12 years old against taking caffeinated drinks, which may cause them insomnia and feet.
In a like vein, the father of three advised older children and adults not to drink bubble tea after 4pm.
To students who want "that buzz" when they report for their examinations, he stressed: "If you're not sleeping well, how are yous preparing yourself for the test?"
One person who got more than than he had bargained for was Talking Signal host Steven Chia, after he drank bubble tea thrice weekly for a month equally an "experiment".
Before he started, he was at low risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. But later a month, his cholesterol levels and inflammation markers (measured with a blood test) increased, putting him at moderate run a risk of a middle attack or stroke.
He was also 1.ix kg heavier, even though he had connected to exercise regularly.
The doctor who tracked his health markers told him: "If the only full general change you had was to add the bubble tea … (it) would logically result in such changes in indicators."
NEW TASTES, Only IS CHANGE ON ITS Fashion?
While much has been said about the sugar levels in bubble tea, there have been some changes of belatedly. Virtually two years ago, retailers introduced more varieties and flavours beyond the original pearl milk tea.
WATCH: The full episode, part one — What's with our obsession with bubble tea? (21:58)
And shops are at present selling low-sugar or depression-calorie versions by, for example, allowing customers to add more nutritious toppings instead of tapioca pearls.
These alternatives include aloe vera gel, grass jelly, ai yu jelly (a low-carbohydrate, low-calorie substitute made from the seeds of a fig species) and carmine beans.
Mount Alvernia Hospital's head of nutrition and dietetics, Sarah Sinaram, recommends such toppings, or none at all, every bit well as low-caffeine teas when ordering bubble tea.
"White pearls would definitely be a lower-carbohydrate option … I like to have things that are paired with vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre — so when you have your chimera tea, at least you have some nutrients," she said.
"A lower-caffeine pick would be things like our green tea, our oolong tea, and now we even accept alisan, which is a type of oolong, and earl grey tea options."
Otherwise she recommends low-fat or skim milk.
What many chimera tea fans love, however, is the chewy texture of tapioca pearls, which the aforementioned variants lack.
This is why Holista thinks it has the healthier answer, with the pearls but "near 60 per cent less saccharide" in its chimera tea than conventional bubble teas.
"We've washed the taste test several times," said Rajen. "We work with a visitor that has the exclusive franchise for the Taiwanese bubble tea, so they know that game very well, and they've been very happy with what they've seen.
"And nosotros want to work with them to bring (the sugar) down fifty-fifty further, without sacrificing … the olfactory property, the await and the feel."
This new bubble tea may be in Singapore within half dozen to nine months, he envisaged. But one drawback may be its price: A cup may cost "between 15 and 20 per cent more than" than current prices.
An alternative to bubble tea itself — simply still sweet — is yoghurt drink, as marketed by Yomie'due south Rice 10 Yogurt, for example.
Likewise milk tea being replaced past yoghurt, the pearls are replaced by toppings such every bit fresh fruits and "some superfoods like dates and imperial rice", cited marketing manager Heme Ching.
"We apply regal rice to create that kind of chewiness," she said. "Once the raw regal rice is cooked, information technology'll give you a … glutinous rice kind of texture — a scrap sticky.
"In that location'due south a lot of antioxidants … It'southward kind of like a more wholegrain nutrient."
Change, however, may take time.
WATCH: The total episode, function 2 — In search of healthier bubble tea (22:xix)
Yomie's Rice x Yogurt was launched in Singapore at the end of 2019. And it is up against "not just a drink" merely a "lifestyle", social media influencer Daniel Ang of Daniel'south Nutrient Diary said in describing bubble tea.
"It's a drink that makes you feel hip," he added, citing collaborations between chimera tea brands and way, ice-foam or other lifestyle brands.
So the addiction to the potable is not merely about the sugar or the stuff inside — and the quest for healthier bubble tea continues.
Scout these two Talking Point episodes here and here. The programme arrogance on Channel 5 every Thursday at 9.30pm.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/cnainsider/healthier-bubble-tea-even-diabetics-can-love-low-sugar-calorie-185701
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