Rethink Your Drink

You’ve been awake since 6:00 a.m., you just had lunch and now you feel the afternoon slump creeping up on you. You’re thinking about reaching for a soda or a large flavored coffee. Does this scenario seem familiar? It’s time to rethink your drink!

It can be easy to dismiss the nutritional content of a drink; the sips go down so easily and beverages aren’t very filling so they can’t possibly be that caloric, right? Wrong. You might be surprised at how much sugar is in some popular drinks. Instead of listing out grams of sugar, it is more powerful to compare beverages to familiar, sugary snacks:

20 oz. Coca-Cola = 5 Little Debbie Swiss Rolls
23 oz. Arizona Green Tea = 20 Hershey Chocolate Kisses
32 oz. Gatorade = 5 Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups
16 oz. Dunkin Donuts Iced Caramel Latte = 3 ½ Krispy Cream Donuts

Now you probably wouldn’t eat three and a half Krispy Cream Donuts for your afternoon snack, but it’s much easier to consume the same amount of sugar when sipping it in your caramel latte. When you want to drink something other than water, what should you look for? Choose options with 0-5 grams of sugar per 12 ounces. Try coffee with one teaspoon of sugar and milk, or sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon or lime. Not sure if your favorite beverage meets our guidelines? Check this beverage guide from Harvard University.

Bottom Line: Identifying the amount of sugar in beverages can be difficult. Try to stick to drinks with 0-5 grams (about one teaspoon) of sugar per 12 ounces. If you’re trying to wean off a sweet drink, try cutting its sweetness by adding water as your taste buds adjust to less sugar.

Source

Visit Wellness Workdays for more information about our worksite wellness programs.