Drinking your energy

If you are struggling to maintain your weight and wonder what might be contributing to a few extra kilojoules, you might review the food you are eating and be left scratching you head. Often without knowing, people are consuming their daily allowance of kilojoules from food and then drinking excess kilojoules on top of that.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught out and consume excess kilojoules though beverages. It could be through the type of drink you have, the size of the drink, or anything that’s added to the drink like sugar or mixers. Drinking fluids is an important part of a healthy diet and it’s still possible to have a variety of drinks during the day without too many additional kilojoules.

Some simple modifications to beverage intake including switching from full cream milk to skim milk, eating fruit rather than drinking juice, regular size coffees in place of a large, sweeteners in coffee and tea and drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration can all save a few extra kilojoules.

There are times when you will consume energy contributing beverages and it will be appropriate. Then you want to consider any additional nutritional benefits the drink can offer like protein and calcium in milk, and electrolytes in sports drinks.

Soft drink
While soft drink has no fat in it, it has a huge amount of kilojoules purely due to it sugar content. One 375ml can has nine teaspoons of sugar. Excess kilojoules, be it from protein carbs or fat, can lead to weight gain. Just one can of soft drink on top of your recommended daily kilojoule intake each day for a year and it can contribute to six kilograms of annual weight gain purely from soft drink!

Sugar in coffee and tea
This one depends on how many hot drinks you add sugar to each day. If you add two sugars to your tea or coffee it adds 130kJ, however, if you have say, six cups a day that contributes an extra 780kJ.

Alcohol
The substance of alcohol itself contributes 290kJ per standard drink, then adding soft drink mixers can add further kilojoules. Like anything, you need to consider consuming in moderation for a number of reasons; excess kilojoules are just one of these.

Juice
Juice is a concentrated form of fruit. Half a cup of juice is equivalent to one piece of fruit, while having a 375ml bottle would be the same as eating three pieces of fruit in one sitting, without as much filling fibre.

Full cream milk
Full of nutrients and great for kids under two. However, if you are watching your weight or saturated fat intake, skim milk has half the kilojoules and saturated fat content with all the same benefits of calcium and protein. Low fat and skim milk actually has more protein and calcium than full cream milk.

Sports drinks
Appropriate to give extra fuel and electrolytes for a strong, efficient workout. They are best used in strength and endurance training rather than recreational weight loss. If you are working out for less than an hour then water is the best for rehydration.

Commercial smoothies and juice bars
The main thing to be cautious of with these drinks is the serve size. If they are 98% fat free that means they have two grams of fat per 100ml. Some of the cups hold up to 500ml so you’re actually consuming 10g of fat!

Super sizing
An extra 50 cents might be a good saving but it’s actually costing you kilojoules. Whether is the next size coffee, soft drink or milkshake, the increase in volume can add an extra 250 to 500kJ.