Take a visit to the local grocery store, and you’ll likely see full aisles devoted to beverages that aren’t water.
“It tastes good,” said Breanna Hargest, a 17-year-old from Crystal, referring to soft drinks. “My favorite drink is probably root beer.”
Yet whether it’s a soft drink, a sports drink, or something claiming to be a fruit juice, the common denominator is that they’re all infused with sugar, and Americans can’t seem to get enough.
“Well, we’re taking in about 300 calories more than we did a generation ago,” said Donna McDuffie, a registered dietitian with the Minnesota Department of Health.
She says of the extra calories we’re consuming, about half come from sugar-sweetened beverages.
“It’s mostly about access,” McDuffie said. “It’s very easy to get. It’s very cheap. It tastes good. and there is difficulty getting access to healthier beverage options. So you add that all together, and you have a problem.”
It’s a problem because excessive intake of sugar-infused drinks has led to expanding waistlines.
“And it’s the weight gain that’s the problem,” McDuffie said. “That’s where you get the chronic disease, the weight-related chronic diseases like some cancers, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease and stroke.”
On a normal day, McDuffie said people can consume nearly 1,400 calories from drinks alone, but substitute a couple of those drinks with water or less sugary drinks, and you can cut that down to 235 calories. And for people who think water isn’t exciting enough, dietitians say you can always add slices of oranges, lemons or cucumbers.
“What I would really recommend is really to try to acquire a taste for water cause we’re not drinking enough water at all,” she said.
Delane Cleveland
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