Unfortunately, boba itself provides very few health benefits, though its calories and carbohydrates can provide you with a boost in energy. In most cases, boba tea contains high levels of sugar, which is linked to long-term health conditions like diabetes and obesity.
And as it turns out, those little balls contain starchy carbs—and not the nutritious, fiber-rich kinds found in whole grains, either. Cooking tapioca pearls only makes it worse. They're typically cooked in hot water, along with even more added sugar, for up to three hours.
Per Iuzzolino, “boba tea is not the beneficial drink that everyone assumes it to be,” namely because the tapioca balls in the beverage, sweet and chewy though they may be, have no nutritional value, and are basically just empty calories, carbs and sugar: “Lacking any vitamins or minerals, as well as having zero fiber, ...
While many bubble teas often lack nutritional value, BUBLUV boasts no added sugar, no artificial ingredients and contains less than 50 calories per bottle. This has far fewer calories and sugar content than regular tapioca pearls in bubble tea, which can contain 200 or more calories per quarter cup serving.
The calorie counts for boba teas depend on how much you're served, but in general, these are high-calorie, high-fat drinks. A 16-ounce serving may have as many as 440 calories, with more than 200 of those from fat.
Brown sugar milk tea with boba has been found as the unhealthiest option with 18.5 teaspoons of sugar. For an easy reference, a can of regular coke contains 7 teaspoons of sugar; a cup of brown sugar milk tea with pearl is equivalent to 2.6 cans of coke.
It's nearly impossible to get clear info on this, but my research shows that each boba ball contains between 5 and 14 calories. A typical boba drink uses between 25 and 75 of these tapioca pearls, so that means that just the tapioca in your drink can easily add up to hundreds of calories.
Unfortunately, boba itself provides very few health benefits, though its calories and carbohydrates can provide you with a boost in energy. In most cases, boba tea contains high levels of sugar, which is linked to long-term health conditions like diabetes and obesity.
Boost your immune system.
One of the crucial health benefits of bubble tea is to enhance your immune system. The drink contains a wide range of antioxidants that blocks any oxidative stress accumulation. Besides, there are fresh fruits such as mango and strawberry, which is good for you.
The recommended daily added sugar intake should be no more than 10 percent of calories consumed while the Boba tea with tapioca and milk already contains 38 grams of sugar which is way higher than the recommended. This predisposes one to obesity, heart conditions and diabetes.
A Quick Review
But there are a few reasons to enjoy this sweetened beverage in moderation. Drinking too much of it may increase your chances of developing diet-related diseases and leave you constipated. "One to two cups a day should be fine, but you shouldn't consume anything in excess," advised Dr. Kushnir.
As EBC Dongsen News reports, the director of Zhuji People's Hospital's emergency department said that boba, being made of tapioca starch, are already difficult to digest, but some makers also use thickeners and preservatives, the significant consumption of which may lead to gastrointestinal problems. WORTH IT.
Boba pearls are made of tapioca starch that comes from the cassava root, so compassionate customers can rest easy knowing that gelatin is not used in the making of these tiny balls of deliciousness.
Bubble tea balls are easily digestible for most people
Since tapioca comes from the starch-based cassava root, it's mainly filled with carbohydrates, according to Healthline. Starches like cassava function similarly to fiber in the body, and healthy people can digest them with no problems, Dr. de Latour said.
The hospital compared the sugar level in seven types of bubble tea orders, and found that the unhealthiest option by far was brown sugar milk tea with pearls. This drink contained 18.5 teaspoons of sugar. The second most unhealthy option was winter melon tea, at 16 teaspoons of sugar.
One published nutrition study suggests that boba tea drinks are part of the larger group of sugar‐sweetened beverages (SSB) because these beverages are usually sweetened with high‐fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
Boba or bubble tea offers a different taste than what people are used to. It's sweet, but with the unique ingredient of tapioca balls at the bottom, it's also creamy, chewy, and tasty. The taste of the tea is sweet and refreshing. But the tapioca at the bottom adds a creamy texture and roundness to the drink.
A 24 fluid-ounce serving of Classic Milk Tea: 243 calories and 63 g sugar. For comparison, your typical 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola is 140 calories and has 39 grams of sugar. A 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola is similar to the 24-ounce Classic Milk Tea nutrition: 240 calories and 65 grams of sugar.
Unique Taste
The sweet taste of the tea paired with the chewy tapioca balls make up the unique element that boba provides. Drinks like iced coffee or juice have the same constant texture, but with boba, the pearls offer a sort of “break” from the same boring consistency. There really is no other drink like it.
Boba is made from tapioca starch, also known as cassava starch, which is why they're often also labeled as "tapioca pearls." They're small spheres that are often simmered in a brown sugar syrup to give them a sweet taste and dark black color.
Another thing to consider is the amount of sugar present in a cup of bubble tea. A medium-sized 500ml bubble milk tea with pearls and the full amount of sugar has 8 teaspoons of sugar and 335 calories.
One serving of bubble tea will contain around ½ cup of boba pearls. You can reduce this to around ¼ cup per drink if you like fewer pearls.
But if you love drinking bubble tea, you are actually addicted to its sugar. Did you know? Sugar is as addictive as cocaine! However, it is widely used as a 'legal drug' worldwide, as it causes addiction in the brain.
The chewy tapioca balls (which are usually 10-15 mm in diameter) could be difficult for young kids to swallow properly. Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Management has warned the pearls could be aspirated, or accidentally inhaled into the lungs, especially by children under 4 years old.
Bubble tea is a tea-based drink that originates from Taiwan. It is also known as pearl milk tea, boba tea and QQ (onomatopoeic for the Taiwanese word for 'chew-chew').