Okay my newest public enemy #1 for today is tea. Iced tea. Not the wonderful actor/singer Ice-T from Law & Order (my favorite show), but the insidious drink found on every nearly table in every restaurant in Texarkana. By itself, it’s great. Meaning that drinking iced tea without sugar or with splenda/equal/sweet’n low is great – no calories and maybe a few antioxidants depending on the type of tea. But tea with sugar – the deadly “sweet tea” – is toxic. An average sized glass is about 16 oz and 150-250 calories. Assuming you drink 1-5 glasses per day, this takes up anywhere from 10-75% of your daily calories!!! And will it fill you up and keep you from being hungry? No! In fact, all that sugar will raise insulin levels in your bloodstream which will then cause your blood sugar to plummet down in about an hour – making you huuuunnnngggrrry again and usually for carbs. It is simply a terrible choice. In my own humble opinion, I’d rather save the calories for the occasional chocolate bar treat than spend them on something that won’t satisfy you. We have several patients who made no changes to their diet other than switching to artificial sweeteners in their tea and lost 2-6 pounds in two weeks. Try it as an experiment for two weeks and you’ll see –no pain, all gain.
11. February 2009 at 8:32 am
It seems to me that the more I hear about foods and various drinks, there’s an inherent flaw in everything but possibly water and…in some places that too is not safe to consume straight from the tap.
I broke my ankle about 3 weeks ago and instead of focusing on the tasks at hand when I saw my neurologist, he went into a 15 minute monologue over the “horrible aspects of soda’s”
Now, background here, when I learned that I had diabetes in October of 2007, I cut from 10 or 12 cans of regular soda a day (love me some Coca Cola) to 1 (and occasionally 2 depending on stressors) a day. I need the caffeine in the mornings because as hard as I have tried, (cutting that soda to half as much, then 1/4) I still get a caffeine headache.
So, the neurologist spent all this time fussing about the soda. I had made the switch in Oct of 2007 to diet drinks. IN October of 2008, he insisted that I cut those out as well, declaring that “one is as bad as the other”.
And, so I went back to my regular soda once a day and occasionally I do have a second if we eat out and I am simply overwhelmed. I’m not fond of even sweet tea. I can and will drink it, but normally I order lemonade and have them top it off with a bit of tea. Lemonade being full of sugar is no more helpful than the soda or full glass of sweet tea, I know that.
Now, let’s be real, my neurologist suggested I get my caffeine from unsweet tea or coffee in the morngings instead of soda. I detest coffee. I don’t like the taste at all, heck I don’t even like the smell. And, unsweet tea tastes like dog urine smells.
Moving right along, the neurologist made no bones about the whole soda versus coffee and tea debate but skipped straight to the following statistics….I’m wondering how accurate they are:
* a teenage female who drinks 1 clear soda a day stands a 300% increased risk of breaking a bone
* a teenage female who drinks 1 dark soda a day stands a 500% increased risk of breaking a bone…..
In theory then, at my age and with my dark soda intake, I’m lucky I only broke my foot and not my hip. (He actually said that)
So, at this point, I remind him of the caffeine headaches and the mere thought that I cut back from 10 or 12 regular soda’s to diets to have him suggest I switch back to regular and cut down to the 1 or 2 at the most a day.
At this point, I told him that our water out of the tap isn’t always safe to drink (just trust me on this one, we get notices all the time about it), so we buy Propel. At this point, he flipped his lid yet again. Propel is the best way I’ve found for me to consume water, yet this doctor launched yet another lecture on the dangers and blah blah blah…
I said all that to say, what’s a girl to drink? GEEZ!
11. February 2009 at 8:53 am
“What’s a girl to drink?”
Water!
BTW, Propel has 10 calories per 8 oz. so it’s not a bad choice. It will make your pocketbook lighter though when compared with the cost of tap water. I drink tap water myself but stick with Propel or bottled water if you feel your tap water has issues.
Thanks for the post! I’ve got to get back to work
23. March 2009 at 3:30 pm
I bought one of the Britta water filter pitcher, and I filter the water for everything now. I find that I drink a lot of hot water, yes just hot water directly from the pitcher and then run through a coffee maker to warm it or through the microwave. It helps me get my stomach functioning in the mornings. In the evenings I find that I enjoy a cup of hot green tea or two, I use sweet and low, and at times I will add some lemon juice from a bottle of real lemon.
Just recently I have found that I also enjoy a 16 ounce cup of hot water with about one and a half ounces of apple cider vinegar. It is something different and it does help keep up the fluid intake. We do need to drink at least eight, eight ounce glasses of water each day. It helps with the digestion and it helps the body flush out waste materials.
Dave 03-23-09
23. March 2009 at 8:24 pm
Fabulous! I love new ideas for drinking more water.