Drinking Calories Counts, Too
Watching your weight? Watch what you drink.
Watching what you eat is an important step in weight loss, but you also need to think about what you drink. Sipping sugar-sweetened soda, fruit juice, punch and cocktail drinks, especially frosted blender drinks and after-dinner liqueurs, can promote weight gain and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Take an eye-opening look at these calorie counts:
One 12-ounce glass or can Calories
Beer 114
Regular soda 155
Apple juice 180
Chocolate milk 311
Pina colada (with rum) 660
When out on the town, alternating a glass of water or other calorie-free, non-alcoholic drink with an alcoholic beverage will help you pace yourself and cut the amount of calories you drink in half. Smart drink choices include water, club soda, diet sodas, skim milk, low-fat soy or rice milk, and, in moderation, coffee or tea without flavored syrups and heavy cream.
Drink Pop, and You’ll Eat More
You know that surgary nondiet sodas are full of empty calories. Now researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., have found evidence that drinking soft drinks is linked to the consumption of more calories overall.
The researchers reviewed 21 studies and concluded that people who drink full-calorie sodas tend to increase the number of calories they consume above and beyond what is in the sodas. The researchers theorize that soft drinks may make you feel hungrier or increase your desire for other similarly sweet foods, but they say more research is needed to know for sure.
