E9

Catherine McCain

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

There was a time when all our calories came from food, but that is no longer the case.

Decadent coffees with syrup and a dollop of whipped cream can quickly add up to 800 calories, while a refreshing milkshake can climb to almost 700 calories. They make a Big Mac look like a diet food.

On these hot, humid days, a cold drink may help quench our thirst, but the danger is that they are not known to fill us up. It's as if liquid calories just don't register on our brains' appetite centre the way solid food does.

Although it is difficult to get Canadian data, we often follow American trends and the stats are growing. The average American is now drinking almost 20 per cent of their total calories with soft drinks and fruit drinks being the main culprits. Canadians now average over 100 litres of soft drinks per year, which is double the amount people were having 30 years ago.

The problem is when we down a high-calorie soda, or juice, with our meal, we often don't eat less food to compensate. When you start to do the math, sometimes our innocent fruity health drinks can make the numbers add up quite quickly, which can affect our waistline.

A healthy glass of juice for breakfast, followed by a café latte at morning break, and maybe a fruit smoothie in the afternoon can quickly add up to over 800 calories.

Here are some simple things you can do that will help you reduce your liquid calories, and help you get back into those jeans.

Coffee lovers should always get their flavoured coffee drinks made with fat-free or low-fat milk.

If you want the syrup and whipped cream, just remember to treat it more like a dessert than a coffee.

Plain, old-fashioned water should be our drink of choice, especially when our body is trying to acclimatize to this fluctuating weather. A little dehydration can quickly trigger salt and sugar cravings and cause our energy level to slump.

Calories from alcohol are treated very differently by our body; there is a reason they call it a 'beer belly.' Although there may be some interesting health benefits with one to two drinks, they are lost once we exceed two drinks and then the calories climb. A refreshing cooler can add another 230 calories without affecting our appetite.

Always serve water with meals, and try to add some lemon or lime to it.

Although some people may argue that they drink diet drinks instead, they may not be that far ahead. There are many questions concerning how our body handles artificial sweeteners. Some can be 600 to 800 times sweeter than natural sugar and actually trigger a sweet tooth, while research is now examining how our body handles them hormonally.

It is easy to be misled in the juice aisle as healthy juices are hidden among numerous 'fruit drinks.' The real fruit juices are actually made from fruit and there is no sugar added, while the majority of the drinks in that aisle are made with glucose and fructose with a little fruit juice added on the side.

Some look more like a non-carbonated soft drink. Some have only one teaspoon of fruit juice for every 19 teaspoons of sugar-sweetened water.

Although the image may look refreshing and healthy, we need to read the labels.

The other culprit is the serving sizes we're given. How often do we see a toddler holding onto a 500 ml juice bottle? How come serving sizes climbed from 6 oz cups to 16 oz?

Something is wrong when you need two hands to hold onto a drink.

Catherine McCain, RD, BSc, MBA, is a consulting dietitian in private practice at 340 Brunswick St. She can be reached at 457-2722.