Choosing Healthy Beverages

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!

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.

How many teaspoons (tsp) of sugar are in a 20-fluid-ounce drink?

• water = 0 tsp

• vitamin-added water = 8 tsp

• sports drink = 9 tsp

• orange juice = 11 tsp

• energy drink = 13 tsp

• sweetened tea = 14 tsp

• soda = 15 tsp

• juice = 17 tsp

Recommended daily intake of sugar:

• no more than 6 tsp for women

• no more than 9 tsp for men

Drinks from soda to fruit juices contain way more sugar than we should be having regularly and have many adverse health effects.

Excess sugar intake can lead to diabetes, weight gain, heart disease, and tooth deterioration.

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.

Photo by Rae Wallis on Unsplash

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 isn't much of the fruit itself in there.

Stick to natural fruit if you have to drink fruit juice!

Limit the amount of artificial flavors and concentrates you have.

Keep it simple — the best choice of beverage most of the time is water. Here are some of the key benefits of drinking water:

1. Better skin and hair

2. Improved digestion

3. Carries oxygen around the body

4. 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 them!

While sugary drinks taste good and are enjoyable, it's best if you have them only once in a while.