The Lowdown on Calories in Sonic Smoothies

Sonic Smoothies

Yum! Who doesn’t enjoy a tasty smoothie after a tough exercise session or while cooling off on a hot summer day? On the other hand, not all smoothies are as healthy as you think. In fact, many of them are high in calories with lots of hidden sugar. What about ones you get at fast-food restaurants like Sonic Restaurant? Here’s what you need to know about the nutritional profile and calories in Sonic smoothies.

Strawberry Banana Fruit Smoothie

Strawberry and banana sounds like a healthful combination – but when the Sonic Restaurant makes their version of this smoothie, it has more sugar than a soft drink. With 83 grams of the sweet stuff and 110 grams of total carbohydrates, sipping this drink will give you a real sugar rush. With more than twice the sugar in two twelve ounce cans of soft drink, it’s not going to win a glowing endorsement from the American Diabetic Association. Plus, there are 460 calories in a single 14 ounce smoothie and only a single gram of protein.

On the positive side, if you can look past the calories and sugar, this drink is an excellent source of iron, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C. However, there are healthier ways to get these vitamins and minerals such as eating whole fruit or making your own low-sugar smoothie at home.

Tropical Fruit Smoothie

This is another “splurge” from a sugar and calorie perspective. A single 14 ounce Tropical Fruit Smoothie has 500 calories and 90 grams of sugar. To put that in perspective, you could munch on three whole Snicker’s bars and still get less sugar than you would sipping a Tropical Fruit Smoothie from Sonics Restaurant. This drink comes up short in protein at only one gram, but it’s a good source of vitamins A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

Strawberry Smoothie

This smoothie is made with non-fat yogurt, but Sonic compensated for the lack of fat by throwing in sugar – a whole 99 grams of it. Sipping this fruity drink sensation will also add 542 calories to your roster. You do get 4 grams of protein, but that still isn’t enough to make it a meal replacement. Like the others, it’s a good source of iron, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It also contains real strawberries, so there are some antioxidants hiding in there, but is it enough to compensate for the sugar? Probably not.

Calories in Sonic Smoothies: The Bottom Line

Make no bones about it. Sonic smoothies in all three varieties are more a dessert treat than a meal-replacement. They’re fat-free, but loaded with sugar and carbohydrates – and they aren’t low in calories. Drinking one in place of a dessert splurge isn’t unreasonable if you compensate for the calories with the rest of your diet, but it’s healthier to make your own at home.

References

Sonicdrivein.com (Sonic’s website)

Nutrition Data website