To use Hot Chocolate as my main drink instead of coffee?

[DayInTheLifeOfaMum]

For background I don’t like coffee, I can’t stand the taste of it unfortunately, I wish I liked coffee but I just don’t. Since being a mum I’ve ended up drinking Hot Chocolate in the same way that some people drink Coffee, multiple times a day, at both home and work. I feel like my hot chocolates make me more awake and more alert in the same way that coffee does that for some people, I just can’t stand the taste of coffee though. DH reckons I should stop drinking hot chocolate like this, but he drinks multiple coffees a day which is not much different as I’m using hot chocolate to feel more alert and more awake which is the same thing that he uses coffees for! AIBU to use hot chocolates as my main drink instead of coffees?

For people saying it’s not worse than people having super sweet coffees from Costa etc. You’re right but I’d be saying the same thing if she was having multiple Starbucks chai lattes/pumpkin spice and caramel lattes etc. All are leading to sugar overload and come in at around 300 calories +

I remember seeing in an article there’s one especially calorie laden Christmas drink from Starbucks or something that’s around 500 calories.

OP, so yes I’d be concerned about the high sugar intake. It sounds like it’s the sugar keeping you awake rather than the caffeine.

I used to have one hot chocolate a day but it was homemade in a pot using oat milk, water,
cacao powder and a tiny bit of blended dates
and cinnamon. It probably came in at least 200+ calories though - it’s not something I have every night nowadays. More like once a week!

Sugar bomb!

May as well have a Snickers four times a day.

I love hot chocolate to drink but it's definitely a 'treat' (calories, fat from milk etc). Also, powdered instant chocolate drinks just don't cut it for me. I don't think either you or your DH relying on caffeine to make you feel alert is a great idea.

That’s really unhealthy.

I don’t drink coffee and I might have one black tea a week. I don’t feel
the need for a hot drink, but if I drank hot chocolate it would be as a rare thing as I’d be concerned about the sugar spikes. And my weight.

It'll be the sugar that's doing anything. An energy rush or peak followed by a crash. It's just standard blood sugar ups and downs because of how sugary her hot chocolates are.

If you can wean yourself off the sugary hot chocolates and make one with proper cacao powder and milk it is much better and tastes amazing

As others have said, multiple coffees doesn’t equal as many calories as multiple hot chocolates! By a factor of around 10! I give it to the kids occasionally as a treat, I don’t think you should have lots every day. Mind you, when I was little my parents gave me hot ribena (before the low sugar version was available!) a lot, so who am I to talk 🤣

I think it's the sugar keeping you alert. You're going from sugar high to sugar high. If you want a kick that's not from sugar you need something like this...

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/301956733?srsltid=AfmBOoqFic9qpIU_AbnCuFRloWKHNrwYw-ph0VrFCHFDfP68iAKfQm67

I used to do this when I was young and I didn’t care. Boy I lost a lot of weight when I stopped.

23g of sugar in a "serving" of cadburys hot chocolate (200ml), serving sizes are always small so you can easily add an extra 50% to that.
So 34g of sugar, 3 times a day = 102g

That's a fair whack of sugar, for context - a teaspoon is 4g.
So it's the equivalent of someone having 12-25 cups of coffee/tea (in terms of sugar, assuming they add it)

In short - it's not great

That’s a lot of sugar in one day. I rarely drink hot chocolate as I don’t like sweetened drinks . I love a cup of tea with just a splash of milk.
Could you not have green tea instead? I also find drinking lots of water keeps me alert and awake

Yeah if you want to gain a ton of weight?

And I think it probably a placebo anyway. I doubt hot chocolate actually keeps you alert or awake. If anything it's known as a bedtime drink.

It depends on the hot chocolate. I make hot chocolate with skimmed milk and a teaspoon of cacao powder. I make it in our induction milk heater/frother. No added sugar and I don't feel I need it, plus the skimmed milk means it's low in saturated fat. I like coffee too, but sometimes hot chocolate is nice.

I think you’re probably guzzling hot chocolate because you’re addicted to the sugar in them. I could drink several a day too, because some are so tasty, but I don’t simply because of the amount of sugar (which I’d rather have in an actual chocolate bar!). I definitely don’t think you are being unreasonable though, just picked up a bad habit ☺️

Exactly

Kombucha?

I hate coffee. Don't like tea. Don't like coke.

Plenty of flavours to pick from.

Lidl had some cheap bottles on offer last week for their Japanese week which they will probably still have in stock. Two flavours.

34g of sugar in a 300ml cadbury's hot chocolate (more in a costa/starbucks)

30g in 300ml of red bull
33g in 300ml of coca cola
32g in 300ml of lemonade
12g in 300ml of ribena
14g in 300ml of irn bru

Blood sugar dips?

For my mid morning hot drink I have cocoa, made with hot water and topped up with the same quantity of milk I'd put in tea. No sugar. So it has a little more fat that tea or coffee, but lots of flavonoids from the cocoa solids.

I do drink a lot of tea, but like you I dislike coffee.

Unless your hot chocolate is having any bad effects on your general health, drink what you enjoy.

Agree with this! (I know I’m BU)
It reminds me of when little kids drink ribena from a wine glass pretending it’s alcohol. Just have a tea or coffee like an adult or drink something cold. Drinking multiple hot chocolates a day isn’t normal.

It's got way more calories in it than standard tea or coffee so it wouldn't be for me. If you only drink a couple of hot drinks a day then it's fine.

Sugar rush does not exist, there is no mechanism in the body for that to happen.its like expecting a car with a full tank of petrol to go faster than a car with a quarter tank. If anything sugar makes you feel tired and sleepy.

How can you possibly be unreasonable?

One hot chocolate is more sugar than is advised for an adult to consume in a day.

It's going to be a bitch of a habit to give up unfortunately - multiple a day means your body is now reliant on the stuff.
Stock up on paracetamol for the headaches and start weaning yourself off.