Are you drinking too many Calories?

Posted by Lisa Newton on April 28, 2008 at 5:53am

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Photo courtesy of Dmitry Kichenko and jesiehart

When losing weight, a popular method of tracking food intake is counting calories.

However, many people forget to include the various beverages they drink during the day for their total calories consumed, which can add up to hundreds to potentially thousands of calories, into a daily caloric consumption.

Let’s measure the calorie impact of two popular beverages…………….:)

Take a look at these two nutritional charts. The left one is a standard 8 fl oz glass of apple juice and the right is an apple, in its raw state.

How much sugar does the juice contain? How many calories are in this small glass? How many calories are in the whole apple?

Not including the additional benefits of eating fresh fruit, the apple, based on the Nutritional Facts alone, is much more beneficial.

Nutrition data provided by US Apple Association

As an example, if you’re trying to stick to a 1,200 calorie a day eating plan, for a single serving or apple juice you would consume 10% of your daily allotted calories in a single glass of apple juice.

This is only one example as most fruit juices will result in the same number of calories.

What about alcoholic beverages?

Surprisingly beer and wine are not required to have a nutrition label. In fact, the industry has strongly resisted any legislative efforts to change that, so I don’t have an example of a nutrition label for wine. However, I do have some of their nutritional facts.

Before I mention the nutritional data, I would like to share with you the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 Key Recommendations for the consumption of alcohol:

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Those who choose to drink alcoholic beverages should do so sensibly and in moderation—defined as the consumption of up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.
Alcoholic beverages should not be consumed by some individuals, including those who cannot restrict their alcohol intake, women of childbearing age who may become pregnant, pregnant and lactating women, children and adolescents, individuals taking medications that can interact with alcohol, and those with specific medical conditions.
Alcoholic beverages should be avoided by individuals engaging in activities that require attention, skill, or coordination, such as driving or operating machinery.

Of course, the legal age for drinking alcoholic beverages is 21 in every state.

In regards to calories, on average, both wine and beer contain more that 150 calories per 12oz glass.

To make an educated decision about the value of the calories in wine, you need a bit more information:

1. In 1992 Harvard researchers included moderate alcohol consumption as one of the "eight proven ways to reduce coronary heart disease risk."

2. Research has also suggested that specifically red wine is the most beneficial to your heart health. The cardioprotective effect has been attributed to antioxidants present in the skin and seeds of red grapes.

Scientists believe the antioxidants, called flavonoids, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in three ways:

a. by reducing production of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (also know as the "bad" cholesterol)
b. by boosting high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good cholesterol)
c. by reducing blood clotting. Furthermore, consuming a glass of wine along with a meal may favorably influence your lipid profiles following that meal
Source: Yale-New Haven Hospital

So now have some facts about fruit juice, beer, and wine.

Are you including too many drinks in your daily eating plan? Is your weight loss effort being unconsciously sabotaged by the over consumption of beverages?

In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be posting about the nutritional aspects of some other beverages--like soda, water, and “power” drinks--because

After all, it’s about a healthy lifestyle!

Tags: beverages, calories, drinking, health, nutrition

Comment by Metroknow on April 28, 2008 at 11:40am: Juice is one of my big constant battles for two reasons: 1) The caloric intake or course, and 2) It definitely triggers my cravings for sweet things. When juice is in the house, I want it, and find myself essentially "snacking" on it all day, little by little.

Comment by MamaMaven on April 28, 2008 at 1:36pm: When I had gestational diabetes the endocrinologist told me to think of fruit juice as partially digested fruit--that image pretty much cured me of drinking juice, its been 7 years and I can count the fruit juice I've had on one hand.

Comment by Christine Braun on April 28, 2008 at 2:38pm: The only time that I drink fruit juice is if I decide to sub it for fresh fruit. I prefer fresh fruit so fruit juice is seldom consumed. I used to like the odd small glass of red wine and drank it as a cholesterol buster but since my sniffer debacle, its loveliness is ruined. So sad. Beer tastes fine by the way but I don't think it has the health benefits of wine so it is hard for me to justify the indulgence except yesterday I worked so hard washing walls...man that went down nice. Before you get too worried, that is the first beer i have had in a year.

Comment by Metroknow on April 28, 2008 at 2:42pm: @Eve: First we get a photo of the leavings of a dog on another post here on IowaAve, and now a visual of partially digested fruit. Boy, you would think that people assume that we can all be adults about this stuff! :)

@Christine: What is the "sniffer debacle"?

Comment by Christine Braun on April 28, 2008 at 4:51pm: Permanent damage to my olfactory nerves resulting in an altered sense of smell and taste of a variety of things. Wine was affected as well as cantaloupe, cucumbers, onions,raspberries and anything perfumed or scented. Some days are worse than others for some strange unknown reason to me. I have had some improvement. Watermelon and strawberries have gone back to normal. I am way better than this time last year but the specialist I saw said that usually after a year I shouldn't expect much more improvement.

Comment by David on April 28, 2008 at 5:07pm: The amount of calories in alcoholic beverages are enormous. Besides the other cost/benefit of drinking, people really need to be careful in what, how much and often they imbibe.

Comment by Lisa Newton on April 28, 2008 at 10:03pm: @MamaMaven I can see where labeling fruit juice as "partially digested fruit" would cause you to think twice about consuming it. Personally, I only drink two kinds of juice, cranberry (BTW, if you haven't tried the new 5 calorie kind by Ocean Spray, you're missing out), and REAL apple cider.

LOL@Metroknow Personally, I loved the freedom to be able to post a picture of dog droppings. It's a problem, especially for walker like me, and it felt very good to be able to say something. I think that's adult behavior........................:)

I'm sorry you can't enjoy all the different smells of food, especially cantaloupe. Does this also work with high fat foods like bacon? Now, that might be a perk.................:)

Comment by Cynthia on April 29, 2008 at 8:15am: I don't bother with fruit juice... it's too easy to overdo on serving size. Whole fruit is better and more satisfying. In the fridge now are red grapes, watermelon, tangelos and Fuji apples.

Comment by Christine Braun on April 29, 2008 at 9:42am: @Lisa: Bacon still smells great. The only perk I can think of is that all soda pop now tastes moldy.

Comment by Carol on May 2, 2008 at 10:14am: I got the shock of my life when I realized how many grams of fat I was putting into my coffee. I figured since coffee was my only vice, plus it's just a drink, that it would be alright. But I use a LOT of cream. Anyway, I figured out how many grams of fat I was drinking per day from half n'half and it was 60 grams! I try not to go over 30 grams of fat per day and I was doing DOUBLE just by my coffee! So now I'm on fat free half n' half.