B – Fit: Rethink Your Drink

Coffee, frappuccino’s, juice, Gatorade, vitamin water, the list goes on and on. With all the drink choices that are at our finger tips, it can be difficult to determine what is healthy. 

While I’m sure you’ve heard that water is the best beverage choice, deciphering why other beverages don’t quite compare is much more difficult. If you’re like me, you won’t be caught without your a.m. cup of coffee. How many times has someone tried to damper your morning coffee routine by telling you “coffee dehydrates you”? You can counter that negativity by mentioning to your colleague that research has suggested that coffee in moderate amounts (i.e. 3-4 cups per day) in individuals who regularly drink coffee does not have a dehydrating effect. This means that you are not excreting more fluids than you are taking in. However, if you stop drinking coffee for as little as 4 days, when you resume drinking coffee it may have more of a diuretic effect that day (just in case you needed another reason to justify drinking coffee daily). While this research may be a slight win for coffee lovers, coffee is not without its faults. As you may know black coffee is calorie free, which is great for the waistline. The issue lies with what is added into the coffee such as cream and sugar. A medium double double from Tim Hortons has over 200 calories and 22 grams of sugar (that’s over 5 tsp)!

Challenge: Try slowly decreasing the sugar or cream in your coffee to make it a healthier choice. Going from a double double coffee to black coffee overnight will likely will be too drastic of a change. However, if you could gradually change the cream to milk (or even 1 cream 1 milk) and ask for 1 ½ sugars instead of 2 you can end up making meaningful changes. Continue decreasing the cream and sugar content overtime so your taste buds can get use to the new (less sweet) taste

Since we discussed the nutrition content of coffee, it only seems fit to talk about specialty caffeine beverages (Starbucks, I’m looking at you). Starbucks has created a huge variety of caffeinated beverages that don’t resemble your plain old coffee what so ever. A grande vanilla latte has 250 calories and 35 grams of sugar (almost 9 tsp). The grande Mocha Frappuccino has 400 calories and 61 grams of sugar (15 tsp)! These are just a few of the many caffeinated beverages that are available, and if we’re not careful the calories add up fast. The problem with drinking our calories is that we often do not decrease the calories we are consuming from food as a result. For example, if you were to drink a mocha frappuccino, you likely will still have the same breakfast or snack item on top of the drink, this is resulting in 400 extra calories every day. These drinks are okay every once and a while as a treat, however if you are consuming them daily the additional calories can add up fast.

Moving on to another popular morning beverage, juice. To make an 8oz glass of orange juice, 4 – 5 medium oranges are required. Imagine eating 5 oranges in one sitting, would you feel as full as you do after drinking 1 glass of orange juice? Likely not. That’s because juice lacks fiber, which is a non-digestible carbohydrate that helps keep you full. Whenever possible, aim to eat the whole fruit as opposed to the juiced version of it.

According to CBC’s Marketplace, Canadians spend more than $450 million a year on sports drinks. However, did you know that you likely don’t need to drink Gatorade during or after a workout? Gatorade contains additional nutrients and carbohydrates (glucose a type of sugar) that may be beneficial for athletes who engage in strenuous exercise for a long period of time (over 90 minutes). It is also beneficial for those who exercise in very hot weather conditions. For the average gym-goer, the caloric content of sports drinks can lead to weight gain. Considering that many people exercise to lose weight, the additional calories from these drinks may not be beneficial. Overall, your need for a sports drink to refuel after a workout depends on many factors, however most non-elite athletes can rehydrate just fine with water.  

Vitamin water in a lot of ways is similar to sports drinks. It contains added micronutrients such as vitamins B and C. The good news is that most of the population is not deficient in these vitamins (so we don’t need extra in our drinks). Vitamins B and C are also water-soluble vitamins, this means when we consume them in excess we lose what we don’t need through urination. This takes the saying “flushing money down the toilet” to a whole new level. Ultimately, if you have concerns that you may be deficient in certain micronutrients, speaking with your doctor is always the safest bet. Some flavours of vitamin water can contain up to 32 grams of added sugar per bottle. They are marketed as a healthy beverage alternative to soda, however in reality they are not much better. Adding vitamins that we don’t typically need to a sugary drink does not make it healthy.

When rethinking your drink, water is going to be an obvious topic of discussion. It is best to drink water most often. Water is a calorie free way to stay hydrated. It can help to improve physical performance, relieve constipation and decrease fatigue. Individual fluid requirements vary greatly. We lose water daily through breathing, sweating, urine and bowel movements. However, if you exercise or live in a hot climate, you will require additional water to stay hydrated. An easy way to tell if you are drinking enough water is to look at your urine. If it is a clear or pale yellow colour, you are likely drinking enough fluids. If it is a concentrated yellow colour you need to increase how much water you are drinking daily. It can be easy to increase the amount of water that you are drinking. 

You can try: 

• Drinking a glass of water in the morning before your coffee or tea. 
• Keeping a water bottle or glass of water on your desk at work.
• If you don’t love the taste of tap water, you could look into buying a water filter (such as Brita), these can be inexpensive and purchased at Wal-Mart. 
• If you find the flavor of water boring, you can infuse your water with fruits, vegetables and herbs to your drink. Check out the quick and easy recipes below.

Infused Water Recipes

Infusing water is an easy way to increase the flavor of your drink without adding lots of calories or sugar. When infusing water, you want to add your ingredients and let the water sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours prior to serving, however, it’s best if you let it sit overnight. Top off the pitcher with ice cubes and pour yourself a glass or two, it’s that easy. If you are adding herbs to your water its best to tear the leaves to release the oils.

The combinations of fruits, vegetables and herbs that can be used is endless. Below are just a few flavor combinations you can try. 

• Strawberry + Mint 
• Blackberry + Mint
• Lemon + Lime + Mint
• Watermelon + Basil
• Orange + Blueberry
• Grapefruit + Oranges + Lemons +Limes
• Watermelon + Kiwi + Strawberries 
• Raspberries + Lemon
• Blueberries + Lemon + Cucumber