Stop guzzling liquid calories and sip on these healthy beverages for faster weight loss results
By: Travis Stork, MD
Cut Liquid Calories
Photo Credit: Thinkstock
Cutting down on soda calories is the fastest, easiest way to lose weight and improve your health. Emerging research suggests that even sugary-tasting “diet” drinks may lead to a higher risk for weight gain. Break the habit and swap in drinks that taste great, but won’t inflate.
Flavored Seltzer Water
You’ll find a whole shelf of them in the beverage aisle, flavored with everything from lemon and lime to vanilla, raspberry, and grapefruit. A store brand will cost about 70 cents for 32 ounces, and the flavoring and fizz—with 0 calories—go a long way toward making them ideal soda substitutes. Just make sure you pick the ones without sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners—and start pushing those unwanted, unnecessary calories out of your life.
Homemade Low-Calorie Soda
Even some bottled 100-percent juices have as many carbohydrates as soda. Those carbs come from natural sugars instead of the artificial sugars in soda, but you still have to be careful about drinking extra calories. The solution: Fill a glass a third of the way with juice, and then fill the rest with seltzer. You’ll defuse the potential sugar bomb, cut calories, and stretch your dollar.
100-percent cranberry juice + seltzer = a less bitter, more mellow cranberry concoction
Apple cider + seltzer = sparkling apple cider
Orange juice + seltzer = virgin mimosa
Seltzer + a squirt of bottled lemon or lime juice = citrus “soda”
Pineapple juice + a dash of pomegranate juice + seltzer = faux tropical cocktail
Real Iced Tea
Sugar-loaded sweet teas packed with corn syrup have turned tea into an enemy. Real iced tea, the unsweetened variety brewed without additives, contains disease fighting antioxidant power and is a naturally no-calorie, flavorful beverage. Too bland? Gussy up your tea with taste bud pleasers and you’ll get rid of that giant jug of sugar water sitting in your fridge.
Jasmine tea + a lemon wedge = 1 calming cup
Health bonus: The scent of jasmine may have the power to calm your nerves, according to German researchers. Plus, lemon may boost your mood, according to a separate study. Stress is a major weight booster, so a calming drink could have double the benefits.
Black tea + an orange slice = a strong but slightly sweet alternative to coffee with sugar
Health bonus: Black tea may help ward off Parkinson’s disease, according to a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Eat the orange for a kick of vitamin C.
Green tea + a mint sprig = a heady brew
Health bonus: Japanese researchers found that green tea may protect your gums. Mint may improve alertness, according to a separate study.
Oolong tea + a sliced apricot + a sliced peach + additional fresh fruit = sangria iced tea
Health bonus: Oolong tea contains fat-blocking antioxidants, say Japanese researchers, and the fresh fruit will provide fiber, vitamins, and lots of flavor.
Iced Coffee
Research shows that coffee can help you fight off Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer, depression, and type 2 diabetes. Avoid the calorie-clogged options at the chain coffee vendors (hint: if your order reads like Willy Wonka’s grocery list, it’s probably fattening), and go with straight unsweetened coffee, iced, with milk.
Flavored Water
If you hate the taste of water, spruce it up. Keep a big pitcher in the fridge stuffed with ice and your own added ingredients to boost both the flavors and the visual appeal. That way, you’ll always have an ice-cold, refreshing, beautiful beverage awaiting you every time you open the fridge. Going back to the artificial, metallic taste of the soda can would be a shame.
Ice water + a sliced lemon + a sliced lime = hint-of-citrus water
Ice water + a sliced orange + a sliced kiwifruit + the seeds from one pomegranate = tropics-tinged water
Ice water + slightly smashed blueberries + slightly smashed raspberries + slightly smashed blackberries = berry, berry good water
Ice water + a mango in chunks + three or four mint sprigs = mango mint water
Grocery Options
Poland Spring Sparkling Water with Lemon Essence
Kick your soda cravings with this carbonated bottle that contains a hint of flavoring but no sugar. In fact, any seltzer at the store will do; just make sure it has no natural or artificial sweeteners, and you’re safe.
R.W. Knudsen Sparkling Essence Lemon
Nothing in here but fizz, water, and lemon extract.
Hint Hibiscus Vanilla Essence Water
Hint’s whole line of no-calorie, no-sugar flavored waters don’t overpower—hence the name. Their peppermint and pear versions are good as well.
Izze Esque Sparkling Black Raspberry
If you can’t shake your soda jones, at least pick a brand that doesn’t use artificial ingredients. Izze’s Esque line has half the calories of its other lines and still tastes great
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