Soda is an integral part of the American diet. It is available at every restaurant, gas station and movie theater across the country, and is often served in oversized, refillable cups that make it easy to lose count of how many ounces—or liters—we are consuming regularly. In many grocery stores, cans of soda are sold at lower prices than bottles of water, making many people look at soda as an economical beverage choice.
But one place that you won’t find cans of soda is your medical weight loss clinic in East Brunswick. This is because soda is not a healthy component to your diet, and could be causing you to consume an extra thousand calories or more every week without providing any nutritional benefits.
The bottom line is that there is nothing smart about soda consumption. The pennies saved drinking cans of soda from the food store are spent in the inevitable health care costs for conditions that soda consumption helps contribute to, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related health concerns.
When soda was first introduced to the American diet, it was not consumed in the same way it is today. Soda was a treat—a dessert or snack from the local pharmacy. The portions were small and it wasn’t consumed daily. Nowadays many Americans are consuming more soda each day than they care to realize. Rather than being looked at as a treat, soda is consumed as a replacement for water or other healthy beverages. Soda is served alongside any meal with unlimited refills, ultimately setting many people up for calorie overload.
Here are a few quick facts about soda that you should know as you heed the advice of your medical weight loss doctors in East Brunswick:
- Eight ounces of an average cola have 100 calories and 27 grams of sugar. Most restaurants serve up beverages in 16-ounce cups, which is a pint. This means that one glass of soda is actually two servings.
- To put the amount of sugar in soda in perspective, one jelly bean has about 0.8 ounces of sugar. One pint glass of soda would have the same amount of sugar as about 60 jelly beans, or 54 grams of sugar.
- Soda has absolutely no nutritional value, meaning the calories in soda are “empty calories.” Soda has no calcium, no fiber, no protein and virtually no other vitamin or nutrient that your body needs to thrive.
- Diet sodas are manufactured with artificial sweeteners that have been associated with weight retention, which means your diet cola could be interfering with your ability to lose weight.
The next time you are out and about and longing for something to drink, skip the soda. Water is an essential nutrient and naturally has no calories. Give your body what it craves and stick with water.
