Healthy Drinks With Taste for Replacing Soda
This is a guest page by Philip Rudy.
Sugar sweetened beverages such as soda, juices and energy drinks may be what is sabotaging your waistline. When it comes to weight gain and blood sugar levels, beverages are often overlooked as a source of empty calories and nutrients. It is important to pay attention to what kind of beverages you are taking in because they might be what is causing you to gain weight. It is easy to replace sugary drinks with low sugar and low calorie alternatives but you just have to be a little crafty.
If you are addicted to soda, you don’t have to completely swear off the habit rather switching from regular soda to diet soda can save as many as 170 calories per can! By cutting just one can of regular soda out of your diet and switching to a diet variety, you can lose as many as 20 pounds per year with hardly any effort required.
Fruit juice sounds like a healthy choice but many are actually packed with sugar, preservatives and calories. Regular fruit offers fiber and will make you fill more full than drinking your servings of fruit. While a cup of juice may count as a serving of fruit, you will not feel satiated. Instead, switch to the low sugar varieties of fruit juice such as Light Apple Juice or Diet Cranberry Juice to save 3/4 of the calories. These also make great cocktail mixers. Replace the cranberry juice in your Vodka Cranberry Cocktail with Diet Cranberry Juice and save tons of calories!
Chocolate Milk is a favorite of everyone but the calories are not. Rather than using whole milk, switch to a non-fat milk with approximately 80 calories per cup or if you like, choose an unsweetened almond milk that clocks in at 40 calories per cup. Add a few pumps of sugar free chocolate syrup and your chocolate milk will be under 100 calories and full of healthy calcium and vitamins.
Energy drinks are bad for a number of reasons. Generally, energy drinks are packed with sugar making them high in calories and carbohydrates. The sugar in energy drinks causes a caffeine high and subsequent crash of energy leaving you feeling drained and lethargic. If you really need the caffeine, pick a Sugar Free energy drink and try not to consume more than 8 ounces to avoid the low feeling that generally makes you crave sugar. If you are going to drink energy drinks, stick to drinks like FRS and Monavie.
Sports drinks are important for the major endurance athlete but they aren’t always necessary for a person who is spending less than an hour exercising per day. The sugar and calories in energy drinks can actually out do the calories you burned working out making them a bad choice. It is important to look at the nutrition facts because many times what looks like one serving, is actually meant to be two or three. Many popular brands have come out with zero to fifteen calorie versions of their sports drinks which make the perfect mid or post workout pick me up.
Many of us can’t go without our morning coffee but we can go without the extra calories and fat that come with milk, cream and sugar. Instead of loading your coffee with these ingredients, use a no calorie sweetener for taste and add a sugar free creamer for some viscosity.
Finally, Water is always a good choice but sometimes it could get a little boring. To spice up your water, add fresh lemon or other citrus fruit slices such as oranges or grapefruits. To make a low calorie lemonade, squeeze half of a lemon into your water and add no calorie sweetener to taste. Don’t forget the ice which will help you to burn a few extra calories as your body works to metabolize it.
