Want to know the easiest way to drop a few pounds? Stop drinking sugary beverages, according to a recent study. In a study of 810 adults from across the States, researchers found that liquid calories are a bigger problem than food when it comes to weight gain and weight loss. Think that one can of cola, vanilla venti latte or fruit punch sports drink everyday isn't going to affect your waistline? Think again, the study found. According to the MSNBC report: "Among beverages, sugar-sweetened beverages was the only beverage type significantly associated with weight change at both the 6- and 18-month follow up periods," said Dr. Liwei Chen, lead author of the study and an epidemiologist at Louisiana State University's School of Public Health. The study also looked at other categories of beverages, too: sugar-sweetened beverages (regular soft drinks, fruit drinks, fruit punch, or high-calorie beverages sweetened with sugar), diet drinks (diet soda and other "diet" drinks sweetened with artificial sweeteners), milk (whole milk, 2 percent reduced-fat milk, 1 percent low-fat milk, and skim milk), 100 percent juice (100 percent fruit and vegetable juice), coffee and tea with sugar, coffee and tea without sugar and alcoholic beverages. The results are published in the April 1 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Even one sugary drink a day can have a long-term effect: A 20-ounce bottle of cola has 250 calories, almost 68 g sugar, contains high fructose corn syrup and stomach-irritating acids. Sure, it's marketed as 2 1/2 servings of soda, but most people drink an entire bottle. One of those every day for two weeks is exactly 3,500 calories--the amount you'd need to eat to gain a pound. One 20-ounce soda a day is more than 91,250 calories--more than 26 pounds a year! (At $1.25 each in most vending machines, that one soda a day costs $456.25 a year.) A 12-ounce can of lemon lime soda has 140 calories and 38 g of sugar. Over a year, that's almost 15 pounds worth of calories! Adults following a diet of fewer than 2,200 calories should get no more than 200 calories a day from liquids and should consume no more than 32 ounces a day of artificially sweetened and no-calorie beverages, according to experts. Soda can also increase your likelihood of developing diabetes. Women who drink two or more soft drinks a day risk damaging their kidneys from all the sugar. To reduce those risks, put down the soda (and sugary juice and flavored waters) and reach for the water! How often do you drink sugary beverages? Are you trying to cut back? If you kicked the soda habit, how did you do it? |
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