Addicted to Starbucks Chai? Here's How I Kicked the Habit & Switched to No-Sugar Tea! by Nicole DeAvilla
I was addicted to Starbucks Grande Soy Chai. I was also holding on to a few extra pounds. Being the yoga and health expert that I am, I knew I should cut back on the sugar found in my “drug” of choice. I started to make my own chai at home using non-GMO organic vanilla soy drink. This saved many calories because I did not add sugary syrup like many coffee shops do in their drinks.
I knew I could do better if I switched to plain soy drink with no added sugar. You may be thinking like I was – will it still taste good? Taste is acquired and can be changed. I started by putting in one-third plain and two-thirds vanilla soy drink. Over time, I reversed the proportions and eventually added no-vanilla soy. I love it! Occasionally I still have a short Starbucks Chai, but now enjoy it as a dessert, not as a daily habit.
I'm a tea drinker, not a coffee drinker, so the only time I go to Starbucks is in the summer for passion fruit ice tea with x pumps of syrup (I have southern roots and we like our sweet tea) but the thought of giving up sugar is unimaginable! I also have my hot tea every morning and my 2 favs are 500 mile chai by Tao of Tea sold loose so you have to brew it and I like mine strong, which if you're making yours at home you can make it any strength, but it's amazing. I take with 1/2 n 1/2 and of course sugar in the raw, but you could use soy milk or whatever and those other types of sweeteners such as agave to cut calories a lot and still get your chai fix. My other fav is Revolution Earl Grey with lavender.
*500 mile chai
taooftea.com/product/500-mile-...
*Revolution Earl Grey with lavender
www.revolutiontea.com/earl-gre...
Now, there's my affinity for lemon curd and eclair. Lemon curd? I cut the sugar back by 1/2 and control my eclair consumption by staying away from Gayle's (bakery)!
Now back to you pointing out the amount of sugar in that chai drink...can we talk fruit drinks? As in fruit smoothies and how people think if it's made of fruit it's healthy. What is your option/factual knowledge of these and fruit in general?
This is a departure, I was going into the medical field when I met my husband, dropped out, eloped and the rest is history. However, before that I had 5 semesters of pre-med courses under my belt and the one thing I learned in my anatomy/physiology class that has really stuck with me is that cholesterol is essential for the development of the fetal brain. without it is fatal. It is also considered brain food, if you're feeling "brain dead" eat something with a healthy source of cholesterol such as a hardboiled egg. Granted there are those with cardiovascular disease and eating cholesterol is highly restricted. I'll stop there, but here's an article that's an interesting read.
www.health.harvard.edu/newslet...
I agree with you about cholesterol too.
Perhaps you could write your own tips on these important topics. :)