Ginger beer worse for health than Coke: Study

Companies had completely rebranded ginger beer in the last few years as they target the middle classes with artisan bottles and claims of traditional recipes and botanical ingredients. 

However, despite the revamped image, a new study had revealed that the beverage contained more sugar than any other fizzy drink - even beating Coca-Cola.

According to research conducted by British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open, the average glass of ginger beer contained a whopping 38.5g of sugar - the equivalent of just over eight teaspoons.

According to a new study, the average glass of ginger beer contained 38.5g, which was the equivalent of just over eight teaspoons and more sugar than any other fizzy drink. A glass of Coke, on the other hand, contains 35g, which was about seven teaspoons.

However, ginger ale was found to be the fizzy drink with the lowest amount of sugar on average. A glass contained around 22.9g, according to the findings - but that was still 4.9 tea-spoons.

Tesco had earlier announced that it had reduced the amount of sugar in its own-brand soft drinks, including its cola and juice drinks.

Tesco's cola now contained 4.8g of sugar per 100ml, as against 9.7g previously.

The research found that 55 per cent of all the carbonated drinks on sale in shops from Aldi to Waitrose contained more than 30 grams or seven teaspoons of sugar, the limit that everyone over the age of 11 was encouraged to stick with.

The drinks were even worse for the health of children with a typical 330ml can of almost three out of four (73 per cent) of the 169 products studied containing over 24 g (six teaspoons) which, according to official advice, was the most children aged seven to 10 should have over 24 hours.