‘Addiction’ to milk tea in the afternoon – a trap that destroys the health of office workers

For her, this is a must-have fuel to activate creativity. But the price for half a year of “recharging” is clearly visible on the body as the skin darkens, acne develops densely around the chin and the waist increases by 5 cm, making old suits become cramped.

Similarly, Quoc Trung, 28 years old, a programmer, is also relying on milk tea to get through dry lines of code. Trung’s craving for sweets is so intense that without it, he falls into a restless state, his limbs tremble slightly and he loses concentration. Even though he maintains a weekly soccer habit, Trung’s recent health examination results still stunned him: his blood sugar index had reached the pre-diabetic threshold.

Minh Anh and Quoc Trung represent a generation of office workers who are falling into the “sweet trap” of milk tea – a seemingly harmless habit that is silently destroying public health. Doctor Phan Thai Tan, a health coaching expert, affirms that the craving for milk tea in the afternoon is not simply a lack of willpower, but a consequence of biological reflexes combined with risky behavioral habits.

The root cause starts with lunch. Most office workers’ menus contain a lot of quickly absorbed starch (such as white rice, vermicelli, pho). Post-meal blood sugar spikes and then plummets around 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. This sudden drop, combined with natural circadian rhythms and work pressure, causes the brain to send an “emergency” signal, demanding immediate dopamine from sugar.

However, responding to that call with milk tea is a costly mistake. A cup of “full topping” milk tea can contain up to 1,000 kcal – equivalent to two main meals – but is empty calories. The main ingredients include refined sugar, fat cream rich in trans fats (trans fats) that are harmful to the heart, dyes and especially HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup), an industrial sweetener that is more toxic than regular cane sugar. A 2019 Harvard University study found that people who consumed more than 355ml of sugary drinks per day had a 21% higher risk of premature death than those who drank less than one glass per month.

Loading a large amount of liquid sugar at this time creates a high blood sugar peak, helping to stay awake immediately, but is immediately followed by a steep drop that causes insulin to work excessively. Over time, it leads to insulin resistance – the foundation of belly fat and fatty liver, according to the American Diabetes Association. Other work published in the journal Metabolism in 2015 showed that HFCS increases blood fat and fatty liver faster than cane sugar.

More worryingly, this habit creates a bad “metabolic spiral” when caffeine and sugar consumed after 14:00 disrupts sleep, making the body tired the next morning and continuing to crave sweets to compensate. In the long run, the taste buds are “trained” to only prefer sweet, fatty flavors, making natural foods bland and returning to a healthy lifestyle extremely difficult.

To escape this trap, Dr. Tan emphasized that instead of an absolute ban – which only makes cravings more intense, you should change them with smart choices starting right from lunch. Prioritizing slow-absorbing starch sources such as brown rice, potatoes or beans combined with protein and lots of green vegetables will help maintain stable blood sugar, avoiding “free fall” in the afternoon.

At the same time, an active lifestyle, regularly getting up and moving around and periodically resting the brain will help stabilize the mind without the help of dopamine from sugar.

Dr. Tan recommends that when “sore mouth” strikes in the late afternoon, instead of milk tea, prioritize warm herbal teas such as ginger, cinnamon, chamomile or diluted unsweetened green tea to gently wake up. If you really need a snack, apply the principle of choosing “real” foods that contain protein or good fats such as a boiled egg, some dry roasted nuts, unsweetened yogurt or less sweet fruits like apples and guavas.

Even when your sweet cravings are at their peak, you can still use unsweetened yogurt combined with honey or naturally ripened fruit to satisfy your taste buds at the right time and in the right way, instead of leaving your health to risky cups of milk tea.