When you're trying to lose weight, you need to practice vigilance, watching not just what you eat but what you drink as well. It's tempting to simply swap out your normal intake of soda with diet sodas, but you'd do well to educate yourself about the pros and cons of such a strategy.
Case Against Sugary Beverages
Beverages may play an even greater role in weight loss than foods, according to Mayo Clinic nutritionist Jennifer Nelson. She cites a study in which subjects reduced their daily calorie intake by 100 calories. Those who achieved this by reducing their consumption of liquids lost more weight than those who reduced their consumption of solid foods - even though both groups decreased their caloric intake equally. Those who eliminated a single daily serving of sugary beverage lost the most weight.
Unusual Suspects
When high-calorie drinks are mentioned, the phrase normally conjures images of carbonated beverages, but other drinks can contain lots of calories as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that fruit juices, lemonade, sports drinks, chocolate milk and coffee shop specialties that contain sweeteners, cream or whipped cream can all be factors that sabotage your diet, as they contain large amounts of calories from sugar, fat, or both.
Effects on Diet
No one knows exactly why high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener commonly found in soda, seems to promote more weight gain than other forms of food. Nelson states that it is thought that fructose consumed in great quantities over time increases your body's tendency to store fat. However, simply switching to diet sodas may not be much help either. Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky notes that diet soda is not a health drink and that drinking more than one diet soda per day may actually increase your risk of obesity and diabetes.
Alternatives
If you're searching for alternatives to diet soda, there are number of healthy options. Adding a bit of lemon or lime juice to water can jazz it up and make this beverage more palatable. Herbal teas come in a range of flavors and can be consumed hot or cold as a refreshing, calorie-free beverage. A handful of berries or fruit slices can transform a glass of sparkling water into an exotic treat.
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