(SHAPE.COM)Forget cake and presents. When 7-Eleven Inc. celebrates its birthday, the convenience store gives away free Slurpees to customers! 7-Eleven turns 84 today (7/11/11), and while the company has been giving away Slurpees annually since 2002, this year’s event is anticipated to be larger than ever. According to 7–Eleven spokeswoman Julia McConnell, an estimated 5 million free Slurpee drinks will be handed out in specially designed birthday cups before the day is over.
A free, ice cold Slurpee can be tough to resist in the summer heat. So to help you decide if the icy drink is worth it, we pulled together a few fast facts on Slurpees.
3 Things You Should Know About Slurpee Drinks Before Your First Sip
1. Consider your Slurpee a summer indulgence, not just another drink. In an average 11-oz slurpee (the size 7-Eleven is giving away on July 11th), depending on flavor, you'll get around 175 calories, 48 grams of carbohydrates (more than the average person should be consuming in a day) and a boatload of harmful chemicals. (Have you ever seen an electric blue fruit at the farmer's market?)
2. While “diet slurpees” may have fewer calories, according to some scientific studies, they're even worse for you than the full-sugar flavors. Here’s why: To make up for the lack of real sugar, diet flavors contain aspartame. As aspartame is extremely toxic to many people, the addition of this can be detrimental to your health.
3. Don’t be fooled by Crystal Light flavors. Just because the Crystal Light packets you dump in your water bottle contain zero calories, zero sugar and zero carbs, it doesn’t mean the Slurpee version is the same. A 16 oz cup comes in at 80 calories. This is still a fine low-cal treat, but we just want you to be aware that it’s not calorie free.