Glamour on a budget - Mattie Roberts

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No Juice!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend after a workout. He reached for a can of juice to re-hydrate. Imagine his consternation when I pointed out that the seemingly healthy can of “100% juice” had over 200 calories. I also pointed out that he just undid all the caloric burn in a two mile run.

I see people do this all the time with sports drinks, too. Unless you are an elite athlete, you do not need sports drinks. Plain old water will do. We are, after all, trying to create a calorie deficit with our workouts. And don’t even get me started on soft drinks! They all have well over 200 calories for a standard-sized can. Same goes for sweetened tea drinks.

You have to count the calories in liquids in your daily totals, just like you do with wine or beer. And quite frankly, I’d rather have water all day and save the calories for a couple of glasses of wine with dinner! (2 glasses of wine totals about 200 calories)

There is no juice or sugary drink that is low calorie but the diet ones can work for some people. If you absolutely have to have some flavor in your drink, dilute the juice with ¾ water, or occasionally use calorie-free powders like Crystal Light in sparing amounts.

And don’t forget that bottled water is not regulated the way that tap water is. See this interesting site on the topic. Most experts I’ve spoken with say that your best bet is to get a filtering pitcher and run tap water through it.