Is Bubble Tea Bad For Your Health?

Thanks to the growing popularity of bubble tea, fans can get their fix in pretty much any neighborhood in New York City. It use to be a special treat you had to visit Chinatown to find, but now there's practically a new chain opening on almost every street corner.

For bubble tea fans, this is possibly the best thing to happen to them But if this is one of the drinks you consume regularly, you might want to scale back.

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On the outside, it looks innocent—tea, milk and tapioca pearls—but it's those pearls you really need to worry about. The little balls of starch are all sugar, which means the calories quickly add up, some reaching as high as 440 calories for a 16-ounce tea, depending on what's served.

And don't let the word tea fool you; these drinks provide practically no nutritional value like vitamins or minerals.

So what's a bubble tea addict to do? We're not saying you need to nix the treats completely, just maybe cut back on how many times you swing by your local store in a week.

This article was originally published on 6/15/17 and was updated on 6/26/17.