What You Drink May be Ruining Your Diet

Think you've got your diet under control? You may be gulping down hundreds of unwanted calories without even knowing it.

"Believe it or not, more than 20 percent of our daily calories come from the things that we drink," says Susan Aaronson, M.S., R.D., wellness coordinator for the M-Fit Health Promotion Division at the University of Michigan Health System. "In fact, the World Health Organization recommends that people consume only about 10 percent of their calories from liquids. So those extra calories from liquid beverages are adding to American's obesity epidemic, making it more difficult for people to lose weight."

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, about 136.5 million Americans are overweight. Of these people, about 64 million are obese.

And for the millions of Americans who are trying to lose that extra weight, the solution may not be in what you eat, but what you drink, says Aaronson. To help you make healthier beverage choices - from soda and sports drinks to fruit juice and milk - and cut back on calories, Aaronson offers the following tips.

Soda

"Soda is full of sugar and empty calories, making it a major contributor to the obesity problem in the United States," says Aaronson. "If you chose to eliminate one can of soda each day, which contains about nine teaspoons of sugar, you can lose about a pound in one month; and over the course of a year, you can lose up to 15 lbs."

And since it has no nutritional value, filling up on soda also prevents you from getting calories from sources that do contain essential vitamin and minerals. But if you absolutely can't live without a soda, Aaronson instead recommends drinking diet soda, or reserving it only for special occasions.

Fruit and vegetable juices
Are you drinking 'fruit juice' or some beverage labeled 'fruit drink'? The difference can mean extra calories and few nutrients, says Aaronson.

"Read the label carefully," cautions Aaronson. "If a juice label says that it's 'made with real fruit juice', it may actually contain less than 10 percent of 'real' juice and about seven teaspoons of sugar. The best juice drinks to pick are those that say they contain '100 percent juice.'"

Parents should be particularly vigilant about how many juice boxes they allow their kids to drink each day. Just one juice box contains 100 calories, and four of them are equal to about a quarter of the amount of calories a child should consume in one day.

Aaronson recommends limiting yourself to one serving, or five ounces, of juice a day. The rest of your daily servings of fruits and vegetables should come from actual pieces of fruits and vegetables. Real fruits and vegetables contain the daily fiber your body needs that you won't find in fruit drinks.

Milk