It will leave a sour puss on your face that isn't caused by the juice.
Lemonade, summer's most refreshing drink, appears as innocent as a 6-year-old selling 25-cent cups from her makeshift sidewalk shop. That is until you learn what's in that refreshingly chilled beverage. Sure, you receive part of the lemon's vitamin C and phytochemicals, but consider how little lemon juice (and the accompanying beneficial compounds) is used in lemonade preparations. Mom's recipe calls for five lemons' juice, 14 quarts of water, and 12 cups of white sugar. That's around 30 grams of sugar per serving, or about seven teaspoons of sugar thrown in to sweeten that sour, murky mess if you're one of the 88 million prediabetic Americans.
Given how much sugar is in each glass of lemonade, it should come as no surprise that one of the most serious adverse effects of drinking lemonade is a massive blood sugar increase caused by the quick absorption of glucose into your circulation. Large blood sugar rises can lead to insulin resistance over time, putting you at risk for type 2 diabetes. Here's how it works:
When you consume sugary lemonade, what happens to your body?
When the sugar in lemonade enters your bloodstream, your pancreas releases insulin to help convert the glucose into energy and store it in your muscles, fat cells, and liver for later use.
Even in non-obese people, frequent use of sugar-sweetened beverages like lemonade, as well as various high-carb foods like baked goods, can promote "insulin resistance," according to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition. When your cells no longer enable insulin to unlock the storage doors in your cells, you've reached this stage. Your pancreas responds by producing even more insulin to deal with the high blood sugar levels that won't disappear. Weight gain, cardiovascular problems, and even cancer are all negative effects of drinking sugary beverages over time.
Insulin resistance leads to high chronic blood sugar levels, which leads to type 2 diabetes, a dangerous illness.
The store-bought lemonade is the worst culprit when it comes to blood-sugar spiked lemonade.
While homemade lemonade is sweet enough, store-bought lemonade is far sweeter. Adding water to powdered lemonade drinks can add up to 9.5 grams of added sugars per 8-ounce cup, while bottled lemonades can contain even more.
In its 260 calories, a 20-ounce container of Minute Maid Lemonade, for example, includes 67 grams of added sugar. Sure, that bottle serves 2.5 people, but who hasn't consumed the entire bottle on a hot day? The 16 teaspoons of sugar in one bottle provide 133 percent of your recommended daily sugar intake for the day.
According to the American Heart Association, women should consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day, while men should consume nine teaspoons per day. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average adult consumes roughly 17 grams of sugar each day. Sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs), such as lemonade, account for the majority of them.
An examination of the link between sugar-sweetened beverages and high blood sugar levels.
A rise in SSB consumption has been linked to high blood sugar levels in several studies. For example, a Harvard study involving more than 300,000 people found that adults who drank 1 to 2 servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a 26 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who drank none or only about one serving per month, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Sugar consumption is connected to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and obesity, and heart disease, making the second significant adverse effect of that seemingly harmless summer beverage equally deadly.
One silver lining is that reducing the serving size of lemonade and having it with a meal rich in digestion-slowing healthy fats, protein, and fiber can help lessen the glycemic load of your meal, preventing blood sugar spikes.