Just one glass and the fat starts to melt

Feeling like your weight loss has just stagnated… even though you’re eating healthy and exercising?

This is going to sound way too simple, but… it’s probably what you’re drinking.

I know what you’re thinking… you’re already making sacrifices in terms of what you’re eating so what’s a little soda or a glass of iced-tea or fruit juice going to hurt?

A lot.

Even if you think you’re drinking on the lower side of sugar — by choosing natural juices and lemonades instead of soda — you’re still getting upwards of 20 grams of sugar and 80 calories in every can, bottle or cup. Even protein powder can be a sneaky source of too much sugar.

And here’s the thing about sugary beverages: not only do they add inches to your waistline, they put you at greater risk for serious diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

That’s because your body reacts differently to liquid calories than calories from food. When you eat your calories in food, it triggers a response in your body that makes you feel full and satisfied. This doesn’t happen with liquid calories… so you keep sucking them down.

The end result? Your daily calorie and sugar intake skyrockets. And your health and vitality go down the tubes.

So what can you do? First let me tell you what you shouldn’t do…

Don’t reach for a diet drink. Artificial sweeteners make you more likely to have heart problems, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and strokes — and experience weight gain, not weight loss. And don’t even get me started on the toxic chemicals in artificial sweeteners.

Instead, drink the healthiest, calorie-free, sugar-free beverage around… water.

Does that mean you have to resign yourself to a life of boring beverages? Not necessarily…

A recent study published in the journal Nutrients found that even if you replace just one sugary beverage per day with a glass of water, your health — and your weight — will be a lot better off…

Researchers from Virginia Tech University analyzed health surveys from more than 19,000 adults and discovered that people who swapped out one eight-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage for an eight-ounce glass of water per day were able to drop their daily calorie intake significantly.

They went from getting 17 percent of their daily calories from beverages to getting 11 percent of their daily calories from beverages. The current gold standard for healthy beverage intake is 10 percent of your daily calories… so they weren’t far off after just eliminating one sugary beverage from their diet.

Cutting out one sugary beverage per day also made study participants healthier in other ways…

According to their scores on a health measurement scale called the Healthy Beverage Index, they were less likely to be obese and more likely to have healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels too.

And this isn’t the first time researchers have uncovered the benefits of cutting back on liquid calories…

An earlier study from Harvard researchers found that women who upped their intake of sugary beverages from one per week to one per day, gained weight and increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes over an eight year study period.

Of course, if you’re really serious about your health and your weight, you can swap out all of your sugary beverages for water. But starting with one per day is a good first step. To keep your beverages from getting boring, take a more creative approach by drinking:

• Sparkling flavored water
• Mineral water
• Fruit-infused water
• Add a lemon slice

Sources:

1. Duffey, J. Poti. “Modeling the Effect of Replacing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption with Water on Energy Intake, HBI Score, and Obesity Prevalence.” Nutrients, 2016; 8 (7): 395.

2. B. Schulze, J.E. Manson, D.S. Ludwig, G.A. Colditz. “Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Weight Gain, and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in Young and Middle-Aged Women.”. JAMA. 2004;292(8):927-934.