On a hot summer day a glass of water quenches your thirst.
A cold soda can help elevate your dinner experience.
A tall glass of orange juice after your workout can help replenish your electrolytes.
All these drinks serve their purpose and taste great - but not all of them are healthy choices!
The Silent Ingredient
Added sugars - a key ingredient in many beverages to help improve taste and increase sales. Most commercial drinks contain amounts of sugar that exceed our recommended daily intake.
Take a look at the diagram below.
Recommended daily intake of sugar ranges between 25 - 38 grams (6-9 teaspoons) for men and women.
Excess sugar intake can lead to: diabetes, weight gain, heart disease and tooth deterioration.
As you can see - drinks from soda to fruit juices contain way more sugar than we should be having regularly and have many adverse health effects.
Quiz
Which of the following drinks should you drink the least of?
Fruit Juices
Turning our favorite fruits into juices may seem like a simple and efficient way of getting our fruit intake in for the day but it may not be as healthy as you think.
Think about this - one glass of fresh orange juice takes about 5-6 medium oranges. On average, we should have around 2 servings of fruit a day (roughly 2 oranges). It is easy to see now that a glass of orange juice is not as healthy as we thought it may be.
If a glass of fresh orange juice is unhealthy - imagine a glass of bottled orange juice. Many bottled fruit juices are made out of artificial flavors and colors to enhance the taste of the juice and mask the fact that there is not much of the fruit itself in there. We should try and limit the amount of artificial flavors and concentrates we have.
Our recommendation: stick to the natural fruit!
Benefits of Drinking Water
Let's keep it simple - the best choice of beverage most of the time is water. The benefits of water are countless, a few of them are:
Better skin and hair
Improved digestion
Carries oxygen around the body
Regulates blood pressure
Consider adding some berries, cut up lemons, or slices of your favorite fruit to your water to make it refreshing! If you really want to get creative, try making water based drinks and limiting the amount of sugar you add to it!
Summary
Let's keep it simple - drinks taste good and are enjoyable if you have them once in a while. On a daily basis make sure you have enough water and try to swap out fizzy and bottled drinks for a glass of water!
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