Nutrition
From AlaskaClinic
As we all know, what goes you eat has a direct effect on your body. Nutrition plays a major role in health and is often a helpful tool in the management or prevention of certain diseases and conditions.
Beverages
Many people do not realize that every calorie counts, whether consumed as food or drink. One of the main problems with sugary drinks is that they do not cause a person to feel "full".
Very rarely, if a person eats a balanced diet, do they need any nutrition in liquid form. What this means is that water is still the best option. For people that want more choices than water or water to drink a blue-ribbon panel of six leading U.S. nutrition experts have a few guidlines that may help.
So what should we drink?
* Unsweetened tea and coffee. These beverages contain caffeine. A little caffeine is okay,
but don't consume more than 400 milligrams per day (8 ounces of brewed coffee has 132
milligrams of caffeine; 8 ounces of tea has about 40 milligrams).
* Skim or low-fat milk or soy beverages, up to 16 ounces a day.
* Artificially sweetened beverages, up to 32 ounces a day. If you choose coffee, tea or soda,
watch the caffeine. There's no proof that artificial sweeteners are bad for you -- but
because the data are slim, the panel was "uneasy" about recommending them.
What drinks can we enjoy in strict moderation?
* Alcoholic beverages (adults only). Moderation is the key word here. The guidelines advise no
more than one drink per day for women, two for men. A drink is one 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce
glass of wine, or one 1.5-ounce drink of distilled spirits. And remember, alcoholic drinks
are high-calorie drinks.
* Fruit juice. Fruit juice has nothing in it you can't get from whole fruit -- and it has a lot
more calories. But if you aren't getting enough whole fruit in your diet, one 4-ounce glass
of juice per day is OK.
What drinks should we avoid? The guidelines say we should cut back on these things by at least 75%:
* Whole milk. It's a huge source of saturated fat -- and who needs that?
* Sweetened soft drinks, sweetened sports drinks, and fruit drinks. If you have to have one, limit yourself to an 8-ounce glass.
* Sugar-sweetened tea and coffee drinks.
