From Yahoo!:
Americans have a drinking problem, and not the type you might think. After posting a blog a few weeks ago called "Belt-Busting Beverages,"
we received hundreds of comments from the Yahoo community claiming they
had no idea the stuff they drink could be so hazardous to their
waistlines.
Here’s a typical refrain voiced by one disturbed
drinker: "I know a lot of people that are battling with their weight,
and they tell me all the time, 'I don't eat that much, and I still
can't lose weight.' "
Whether you are a desperate dieter or
just someone looking to drop another few pounds in time for beach
season, here’s a tough stat to swallow: According to the FDA, the
average American takes in 82 grams of added sugars every day. That’s 20
teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories to our already
calorie-saturated diets.
Sure, some of that comes from soda,
but even if you've traded regular Coke for diet, whole milk coffee
drinks for low-fat lattes, and you barely touch the booze, you could
still be taking in 20 percent or more of your calories from beverages.
Add a few of those other indulgences in — or consume one of the liquid
disasters listed here — and you can suddenly be sucking in a few days'
worth of calories through a straw!
(You read that last sentence right.)
To
give you a better idea of the drinks most responsible for sabotaging
your health, fitness, and weight-loss goals, we created a list of
America’s Unhealthiest Drinks. Read up, then sip responsibly.
Worst "Healthy" Drink
Glaceau VitaminWater (any flavor; 20 oz bottle)
130 calories
33 grams sugar
Vitamins
and water might sound like the ultimate nutritional tag team, but what
the label doesn’t say is that a bottle of this stuff carries nearly as
much sugar and calories as a can of Coke. Makes sense, though, since
this so-called functional beverage is produced by our often-sugar-crazy
friends at The Coca-Cola Company.
Worst Juice Imposter
Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can)
360 calories
84 g of sugar
These
hulking calorie cannons (5 percent juice, 95 percent sugar water) are
sold at gas stations and convenience stores across America for the low,
low price of 99 cents, making this quite possibly the cheapest source
of empty calories in the country.
Worst Smoothie
Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d Power Smoothie (30 oz)
1,170 calories
169 g sugars
30 g fat
Jamba
Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milkshake, with more sugar than
an entire bag of chocolate chips. (Note: We're pretty sure this is the
drink Hollywood actors rely on when looking to put on 20 pounds for the
role as a heavy!)
Worst Summer Cocktail
Pina Colada
625 calories
75 g sugars
Made
from a blend of sickly-sweet pineapple juice and fat-riddled coconut
milk, pina coladas may be this summer's biggest beach-body saboteurs.
In fact, the only redeeming part of this drink is the garnish — that
lonely chunk of pineapple hanging from the rim. Try a lime daiquiri or
a mojito instead and save up to 400 calories a drink.
The Unhealthiest Drink in America
Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz)
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)
Let's look at America's Worst Drink in numbers:
73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11:
The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of
calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
8-12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you’d need to spend on a treadmill burning it off, running at a moderate pace.
To discover a dozen other drinkable disasters — along with their healthy and delicious alternatives — click on this comprehensive section.
