(ECNS) -- A cup of coffee is great company in a cold winter. Here in China, the expanding culture is reflected in the growing number of coffee houses that are busy launching festive specials.
However, as British newspaper Daily Mail has revealed, the tasty drink may contain shocking amounts of sugar and fat that far exceed the recommended World Health Organisation level.
The report examined products from several famous coffee brands including Costa, Starbucks and McCafe with disturbing findings. For example,the large take-away caramel fudge hot chocolate from Costa, made with full-fat milk,contains 98.1g of sugar,four times of the advised daily limit.
The report offered a daily sugar consumption recommendation by WHO of no more than 35g for a man and 25g for a woman.
The UK sample may not apply to China. A local newspaper in Beijing followed the story, but found that Costa's Sticky toffee latte and Starbucks Eggnog latte was not on sale in China.
A senior staff member at Costa told a reporter that coffee products sold in China cater to local preference and contains 10 percent less sugar than those sold in America or Europe.
But that doesn't assure safety for Chinese customers. As many people are still not used to the original flavor of black coffee, instant coffee and coffee beverages are also sweet traps.
The Beijing newspaper also conducted its own research, sampling two cups of coffee from Starbucks and Costa respectively and three instant coffee products made by Maxwell, a Jiangsu brand and a Taiwanese brand.
The experiment shows that all five products have exceeded the WHO sugar suggestion.
Zhu Yi, a nutritionist with China Agriculture University, says over consumption of sugar will weaken the immunity system and cause functional disorders.
But he also added that the effects are built up over a long period, so there's no need to worry for occasional coffee drinkers.
