When dieting and wanting to lose weight, you need to consider what you are drinking, and how it is negatively affecting your weight 🍹. Most of the time, the drinks we buy in stores and restaurants are not good for us, even when they advertise them as healthy drinks. The reason for this is because of the sugar content. The sugar changes the makeup of the drink and makes it unhealthy. Our bodies also respond to it differently in a bad way, so today, I will share with you some drinks to avoid because they are unhealthy and cause weight gain.

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Diet Sodas

A lot of people love soda, but they are aware of how unhealthy and fattening it is, so they opt for diet soda to meet their soda needs, thinking that it is better for them. In truth though, it actually isn’t better. The problems that come with drinking soda still remain in diet soda. Diet soda, just like regular soda, dehydrates you, harms your bones, wears down your tooth enamel, and can lead to health problems such as osteoporosis, kidney, and heart problems, as well as obesity and diabetes.

“Consuming artificially sweetened drinks while pregnant is significantly associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity. One study found that the daily consumption of diet drinks during pregnancy resulted in a doubled risk of a baby being overweight at one year of age” (Mandl, E. (2018). Diet Soda: Good or Bad. Healthline).

If drinking diet soda can increase the risk of childhood obesity, don’t you think it could negatively affect you by causing you to gain weight as well?

Cranberry Juice

I used to love cranberry juice, but it has so much sugar added to it to make it taste the way that it does, that there is actually far more sugar in it than any amount of cranberries. Cranberry juice is basically about 90% sugar and water, and only about 10% actual cranberries. I discovered this when they were selling cranberries in Giant, and I bought some. I couldn’t believe how sour the cranberries were. You don’t taste any sweetness in real fresh cranberries, so when brands claim to be 100% pure cranberry juice, but it tastes sweet, you know that they are lying to you. 

True pure cranberry juice is not sweet at all. It is one of the most bitter tart things you will ever drink, so in order for cranberry juice to be sold and taste good, it has to be either mixed with a fruit that is naturally very sweet like pineapples, strawberries, bananas, or watermelon, or you have to add very little cranberries and have mostly water and sugar. So if you want pure true healthy cranberry juice that will actually help you lose weight, you will need to make it on your own at home and mix it with other sweet fruits and leave out the sugar.

Slushies and Blended Sugared Drinks

I am a huge fan of blended coffee drinks, but whenever I have gained weight and need to lose weight and start dieting, I cut back on them. The reason for this is because these blended drinks generally have things added to them, such as excess amounts of corn syrup, sugar, dairy, artificial colorants, dyes, and chemicals. When I make my own coffee or blended drinks at home, I make them with mostly water and some chocolate powder added to them, or just a little bit of chocolate milk (usually a spoonful or two of chocolate milk). My own drinks that I make myself are much healthier than the ones I can buy outside of the home, so I avoid buying these kinds of drinks outside when trying to lose weight.

 Common chemicals and unhealthy ingredients found in blended sweet drinks include:

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup
2. Pesticides
3. Artificial Man-Made Chemical Sweeteners (Sugars)
4. Preservatives
5. Additives
6. Hormones
7. Colorants, Dyes, and Artificial Colors
8. Ammonia

Sports and Energy Drinks

A lot of people are heavily dependent upon energy drinks, but these are not healthy for you because of the heavy amount of caffeine and the large dose of sugar in one small single bottle.

“The sugar content in energy drinks ranges from 21 g to 34 g per 8 oz. and can come in the form of sucrose, glucose, or high fructose corn syrup. “Users who consume two or three energy drinks could be taking in 120mg to 180 mg of sugar, which is 4 to 6 times the maximum recommended daily intake” (Sifferlin, A. (2013). What’s In Your Energy Drink? Time).

Sweet Juices

Sweet juices include all the sweetened fruit juices that you buy in the store that have sugar added to them, such as apple juice 🍎, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, tea drinks 🍵, and mixed juices. These drinks have a lot of sugar in them, and the sugar adds calories and also causes weight gain. You can have these drinks when they don’t have sugar added to them, or when they are unsweetened, which will make them healthier for you and less likely to cause weight gain.

Final Thoughts

When trying to lose weight, it is important to cut back on fattening foods like sweet drinks that are high in sugar, additives, chemicals, growth hormones, and other unhealthy ingredients that can lead to weight gain and health problems. Having a healthy daily diet, cutting out these unhealthy sugar-laden drinks, and getting some exercise is the way to a healthier lifestyle and a healthier body weight.

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