Buy Walking VideosLiquid Calories Count
A University of North Carolina study shows that liquid calories are to blame for the obesity rates in the United States. You can see the slideshow presentation from them here:
Since we don’t tend to eat less food when we consume more liquid calories, and their study shows that consumption of extra calories when they are in drinks is linked to weight gain, they have suggested the following recommendations for drink consumption:
Go with water: Women should drink up to 9 servings of water a day and they recommend 13 servings of water for men.
Unsweetened coffee and tea: As long as you aren’t using any type of sweetener at all, coffee and tea can have some positive health benefits. They recommend a maximum of 4 servings of coffee and 8 servings of tea a day.
Skim/lowfat milk or fortified unsweetened soy drinks: The research on the benefits of milk is still iffy according to UNC, but they still recommend up to 2 servings a day.
Diet soft drinks and coffe or tea sweetened with artificial sweetener: Even though these drinks are calorie free, they may condition a preference for sweetness. Because of this, they are to be used in moderation. They recommend up to 4 servings a day.
100% fruit juices, whole milk and sports drinks: The University of North Carolina sees little nutritional benefit in these drinks and recommends limiting consumption of up to 1 serving a day.
Soft drinks and juice drinks: Also high in sugar, they recommend no more than 1 serving a day.
It looks like the best benefits are those to be had by drinking water. I’ve found that I feel better when I replace soda with water, so I have to agree with them. Here is a handy graphic to visualize what your beverage choices are:
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June 27th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Thanks for posting this. In the past couple of years I have worked hard at cutting “sweet tea” out of my diet and that’s hard considering what a tradition it is in South Carolina but I started changing my tea drinking habits when I would go out to eat with my father who is diabetic and surprisingly discovered the taste of tea that was being masked by the sugar! However I had another bad habit I recently discovered could have been contributing to my slow weight loss. I drink about two cups of coffee a day which in itself isn’t too bad but I am a cream and sugar freck. “Cream” more than sugar. The “cream” we normally use in our household is evaporated milk. I was amazed at the number of fat calories and saturated at that. I really don’t like the taste of black coffee unless it’s with a sweet dessert so as an experiment I went out last night and bought some “Silk Soy Creamer” it has 0 fat and for me is good enough. I got the flavored vanilla kind to so really I don’t even need any sugar with it! Since I don’t see a trackback feature link on your blog I will repost this response on my blog but with a link to your site and the article.
September 1st, 2008 at 5:13 am
I plan to share this information with my high school students. Although our school has now ban the sale of soda, power drinks and sweetened non-soda drinks, I know my students still consume large amounts of these liquid calories. It is important to stress that the introduction of high frutose corn syrup is also connected to our obesity problem. The fact that it is a banned ingredient in Germany is very interesting. I would like to have a listing of calorie content in many of the drinks available at many fast foods and coffee shops.