You wouldn't eat 15-16 packets of sugar would you? Then why would you drink them???!!!
It's amazing how much sugar is in some of the drinks we consume daily. Here's a little rundown:
In a 12 oz. serving of each:
Grape juice: 12 tsp. and 192 calories
Fruit punch - 11-1/2 tsp and 176 calories
Soda - 10 1/4 tsp and 164 (this is the amount in a can) in a 20 oz bottle: 16 tsp (that's 1/4 cup!) and 256 calories
Powdered drink mix: 9 tsp and 144 calories
Sweet tea: 8-1/2 tsp and 136 calories
Orange juice: 7-1/2 tsp and 120 calories
Lemonade: 6-1/4 and 100 calories
Sports Drink: 5 tsp and 80 and 80 calories (again most sports drinks come in bigger bottles and we drink the whole thing)
So, what should we drink? More and more studies are showing that artificially sweetened drinks are not a good substitute, and can actually cause weight gain. So, if you're not already consuming these, don't start.
Of course, water is the number one ideal drink. If you can't tolerate it, you can add a bit of fruit juice or pieces of frozen fruit to it to flavor it. Cucumber water is also very good and refreshing--it reminds me of a hotel we stayed at once--they had it in the lobby in big glass jugs.
If you like the bubbles, there's always seltzer water. I particularly enjoy the orange, peach/pear and coconut flavors that LaCroix makes. You can also take plain and flavor it in the same way I mentioned above.
If you have to have something sweeter, I recently tried Zevia soda. It is sweetened with stevia which is a natural sweetener from the stevia plant. I tried the ginger ale and cream soda versions. I liked the ginger ale, the cream soda, not so much. This soda is expensive. I only tried it because it was on sale and I had a coupon. It normally retails for $3.99 - $4.99 a six pack, which I find ridiculous! When I bought it, it was $3.99, but I had a $2.00 off coupon.
There's also unsweetened tea and coffee. Again, if you need sweetener, I'd recommend trying calorie free stevia. There's always agave nectar or honey too--but these are not calorie free--there's 21 calories in a tsp of agave and 64 in honey.
Let's not forget about milk. There is naturally occurring sugar in milk too, but a cup of skim or 1% milk has the benefits of calcium and vitamin D. There's also almond, rice, soy and coconut milk--all okay in moderation because of their healthy benefits, but again, these are not calorie free beverages.
So how much water should you drink? Based on an article I found at IdeaFit:
"The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its Dietary Reference Intake for water in February 2004. The committee explains that drinking fluids represents about 81% of total water intake, with 19% of water being provided by foods. So, the recommendation for actual fluid intake is 3.0 liters for men and 2.2 liters for women. Since 1 liter = 33.8 fluid ounces, men are advised to drink 101.4 fluid ounces, or 13 cups (a cup is 8 fluid ounces) of drinking water and other beverages per day, and women are advised to drink 74.4 fluid ounces, or 9 cups, per day."
According the the Mayo Clinic website, there really isn't a one size fits all amount of water that we should be consuming daily. It's a very individual thing based on climate, daily activity, etc. But in general, this website gives the same amounts listed above, but states them as total beverages a day, not necessarily water.
Here's a link to the ideafit article: The Wonders of Water
and here's one to the MayoClinic article: Water: How Much Should You Drink Every Day?
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