It’s September 6th, which means the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks and ready to wreak havoc on your body. Okay, so there are tons of things out there that are terrible for you — how many of us are guilty of munching on a large McDonald’s fries when we’ve had too much to drink? PSLs are pretty par for the course. They’re loaded with sugar, fat and all that deliciousness we expect out of a Starbucks drink that is a glorified desert — yum!
A grande PSL has a whopping 40 percent of your daily value of saturated fat. Pepper that with 240 mg of sodium (10 percent of your daily value) and 50 grams of sugar (there’s no recommended daily value because basically, you should never eat sugar and life should be totally joyless), and you’ve got one bomb of a drink that can trigger food addiction, liver damage, heart disease and diabetes.
According to a 2011 study from Duke University, salt can trigger the same nerve cells in a rat’s brain as cocaine and heroine. The dopamine rush immediately hits the system before your blood can even absorb it all. That’s just the salt, we’re not even talking about sugar.
The University of Michigan discovered that processed foods with lots of quickly absorbed carbohydrates (read: sugar) are closely related to food addiction. Worse yet is sugar that’s in pure liquid form without any fiber to help your body slowly digest it. You’re hit immediately with a rush (and later crash). This also wreaks havoc on your liver. It’s reported that the University of California hospital in San Francisco has seen an increase in non-alcohol related liver disease from people who have lots and lots of sugar — because it is an addiction and can really make you sick!
But like…seriously, you’ll probably be fine, right?
Here’s a rundown of what happens right after you drink a PSL. Drink at your own risk (you know we will!).
