Why You Should Never Drink Anything Bigger Than Your Stomach

Source: Flickr (cc) sundaykofax

Starbucks announced their biggest drink yet: the “Trenta.”

The reaction was swift, negative, and probably not what the folks at Starbucks expected. I was surprised that such a big deal was made about it.

At 31 oz. it’s not the biggest drink out there. Heck the Super Big Gulp at 7-Eleven is 44 oz. And conventional wisdom advises drinking 64 oz. of water each day for good health—admittedly conventional wisdom doesn’t say to drink all 64 oz. in one sitting.

Why was there such a strong reaction? Possibly because of how it was reported by Canada’s National Post. What they did was very clever. They answered the question “What does this mean?” with a graphic. And that graphic went viral. It showed that the “Trenta” is bigger than the average person’s stomach.

This got people to thinking. Should we really be drinking more than our stomachs can hold? Probably not. Just how many calories are in one of these drinks? How much sugar? Probably a lot. How good an idea is it to keep making serving sizes bigger and bigger? I’d say not a very good idea at all.

I have a new rule of thumb: Never drink anything bigger than your stomach. It’s probably a bad idea. Don’t you think?