[Effie_drine]

By Lisa Bertagnoli

Your lunch can be ruining your diet.
How to walk off the extra weight.

The average day is awash in liquids: coffee and orange juice in the morning, a soft drink with lunch, a midafternoon latte, and perhaps a glass of wine with dinner. According to the National Institutes of Health, beverages account for 10 percent of the calories consumed by the average American woman. Unfortunately, the types of drinks that Americans guzzle are not always healthful. As a nation, we have a real affinity for soda and sweetened juice -- beverages that are loaded with sugar and empty calories.

"Beverages are meant to hydrate the body," says nutritionist Dawn Jackson, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association in Chicago. She recommends sticking to drinks that contain no caffeine, alcohol, sugar or sodium, and are fewer than 15 calories per serving. That pretty much limits "good" beverages to water, which is just fine with many dietitians, most of whom shrug off or even outright laugh at research that suggests that the longstanding eight-glasses-a-day rule is unnecessary.

But what about those of us who live in the real world, where water doesn't always cut it? True, many of our favorite drinks pack as many calories -- and even fat -- as solid foods, wreaking havoc on our diet. Consider, for example, that an eight-ounce glass of orange juice has 120 calories and no protein, whereas a one-cup serving of Special K cereal has just 100 calories and 7 grams of healthy protein, 100 percent of the RDA for folic acid and 45 percent of the RDA for iron. Or that a smoothie from Jamba Juice can contain as many as 450 calories; compare that to a Thai chicken sandwich from Au Bon Pain, which has only 420 calories. A large McDonald's shake has 1,010 calories (as well as 29 grams of fat and 115 milligrams of cholesterol) -- almost double the amount in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, which contains 530 calories, 30 grams of fat and 85 milligrams of cholesterol.

There is no doubt that we'd be better off eating healthful solid foods, such as fresh produce, lean meats and grains, than knocking back diet-busting beverages. "It takes longer to eat food, and you get the satisfaction of chewing and tasting. Plus, solid food contains more fiber than drinks do, meaning you'll feel fuller if you eat rather than drink," says Jackson. "If you eat the meal instead of drinking the drink, you'll have a more varied diet and get better nutrition."

[mitsukai]

great article.. thanks for posting. related to this, i've fallen in love with FUZE beverages. the 'slenderize' ones have 10cal and 100% vitamin c for a whole bottle (2 8oz servings). they also have l-carnitine and citrimax, which are supposedly weight loss helpers, but i don't know how good/bad they are. the 'refresh'/'energize'/etc ones have ~70-100cal per bottle, but the 'refresh' ones have TONS of vitamins. and they taste AMAZING.

www.fuzebev.com