How to cut back on soda and other sugar sweetened beverages

Are you drinking one or more sugar sweetened beverages every day?  Some of the students in my class drink sweet tea which is common in the South.  Other common sugar sweetened beverages besides soda and sweet tea include:  Caramel Latte’s, sports drinks, fruit drinks (not real juice), or other beverages loaded with added sugar.  One student drank Gold Peak Sweet Tea and noted they added 347 calories to their day.  This would be 347 calories of added sugar and empty calories.  It is also common for parents to serve even very young children sweet tea or a soda at meals instead of milk.  The meal is then loaded with empty calories instead of the nutrition a glass of real milk provides.  

 

This sweet tea is loaded with added sugar.

Why cut back on sodas and other sugar sweetened beverages?

• The Dietary Guidelines for 2015-2020 recommends limiting foods and beverages high in added sugars:
• Added sugars:  Less than 10% of calories per day starting at age 2.  Avoid foods and beverages with added sugars for those younger than age 2.
• Added sugars add empty calories and few nutrients – these added sugars replace nutritious foods that would add vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals to your diet.
• Weight gain – all those extra added sugar calories can add on the pounds.  One student drank so much sweet tea that it added 700 empty calories to their day, every day.   If people drinking all those empty sugar calories every day want to lose weight, the only change needed would be to cut out the sweet teas, the sodas, the sports drinks.  No other changes need to be made in their diet, and they would easily lose weight.  It is also easy to chug down a soda, sports drink, sweet tea and consume many more calories than you need.
• Blood lipids – added sugars can increase the level of triglycerides in your blood.  This can increase your risk of heart disease.
• Cavities – all that sugar can lead to tooth decay and expensive dental bills.

Dietitians have some recommendations on how to cut back on sodas and all that added sugar in sugar sweetened beverages.

1. Break the habit – some people make it a habit to drink sugared soda – they order a soda with lunch at a fast-food restaurant.  They stop to buy gas and run in for a drink and choose a soda.  Rather than reaching for a soda or other sugar ladened beverage – choose seltzer water, real fruit juice, milk with lunch, black coffee or unsweetened tea.
2. Taste – some people crave the taste of soda because of the fizz, the caffeine or the quick burst of energy.  Satisfy the caffeine urge with black coffee, unsweetened tea or a diet soda.  Satisfy the fizz urge with flavored seltzer water.
3. Plan – keep alternatives handy – have sparkling water, flavored seltzer water in the fridge ready to grab. Or, make your own fruit-infused water and keep some in the fridge.  Plan on getting the unsweetened tea.  One of my daughters goes through a fast-food drive through just to get unsweetened tea.  This same daughter used to always get sweet tea but broke this habit over time by getting half sweet tea and half unsweetened tea and slowly lessening the amount of sweet tea.  If you are used to drinking 2 cans of soda a day, aim for one a day for awhile and then one every other day.
4. Make sweetened beverages an occasional treat.  One of my husband’s professors brought out a can of Dr. Pepper at the end of class every Friday.  He explained he used to drink a lot of Dr. Pepper but now treated himself to one can, once a week.
5. Keep the sugared sodas and sugar sweetened beverages out of your home.  That way you have to work a bit to get some sugared beverages.  Less tempting if you don’t see the sweetened beverages every time you open the fridge.
6. Pay attention to labels – a student in my class noted she was getting a serving of fruit from drinking a fruit punch sports drink.  But this drink not only had no fruit, it was loaded with added sugar.  Reading the ingredient label would have indicated the “fruit” punch was loaded with high fructose corn syrup and no fruit at all.  The fruit punch sports drink was no healthier than a sugared soda.
7. Enjoy tea as tea has health benefits but be sure it is unsweetened tea.
8. Choose the can or glass when choosing beverages.  Remember that plastic containers can add plastic to your body (see How much plastic are you eating?), so look for seltzer water and juice in cans and if making fruit-infused water, make it in a glass container.  

Choose glass bottles or cans to avoid all the plastic.

Cutting back on the sugared beverages leaves room for healthier choices in your diet.  I prefer my “added sugars” to be in desserts and not waste all those calories on a sugared beverage.  How can you cut back on sweetened beverages in your day?

Enjoy the health benefits of tea without the added sugar.

 

Sources: beverages , Dietary Guidelines , triglycerides , Dietitians , quick burst of energy , How much plastic are you eating?  Image sources:  Sweet tea , San Pelligrino   , Unsweetened tea