Fans of the famous 7-Eleven brand Slurpee will get a chance to try out a "healthier" version of the famous frozen drinks, beginning later this month. The nation-wide convenience chain announced that they will be releasing the new "Slurpee Lite" this week, in a variety of flavors, including the Slurpee Lite Fanta Sugar-Free Mango, according to a report from USA Today on Wednesday. The low-calorie drink will be advertised the tagline, "All Flavor. No Sugar."
To further promote the release of the low-calorie Slurpee, 7-Eleven will host yet another SlupFREE Day, according to their official Facebook page, where consumers can get a free 7.11 ounce cup of any Slurpee, including the new Slurpee-Lite, on Wednesday, May 23rd between 11:00am - 7:00pm, at participating 7-Eleven stores across the country. Other Slurpee Lite flavors, set to be released later this summer, include strawberry banana and cherry limeade, according to the USA Today report.
In order to make the new low-calorie product, the Slurpee Lite Fanta Sugar-Free Mango was made with Splenda sweetener, which is made sugars processed into a no-calorie, non-carbohydrate product, according to the sweetener's official website. Thus, an 8-ounce cup of the new mango-flavored Slurpee would contain 20 calories, whereas a regular 8-ounce Slurpee, such as the Fanta Wild Cherry Slurpee drink, according to USA Today, would have 66 ounces.
"We talked to a group who said they would drink Slurpees more often if we take out the sugar and reduce the calories," Laura Gordon, vice president of brand innovation, told USA Today on Wednesday.
Previous low-calorie versions of the Slurpee, sold regionally in the United States, were saccharin-based. That artificial sweetener, unlike Splenda, is purely synthetically produced in laboratories.
The new low-calorie drink, supposedly marketed towards females in their 20s, has left some specialists skeptical about how much of a difference it would make on those looking at their health and personal welfare.
"Now it's just a different kind of junk food," Neal Barnard, adjunct associate professor of medicine at George Washington University, told USA Today. "This should not be mistaken as any kind of corporate responsibility. They're just trying to sell you the same stuff in a different package."
