Are Beverages Undermining Your Fitness?
Are you frustrated at your lack of progress in reaching your weight-loss goals? Sometimes people who are committed to diet and exercise fail to consider the impact your beverage selection has on your calorie intake.
It has been well-documented for quite some time that a soda a day will result in a child with a weight problem. Carbonated soft drinks represent the perfect storm of high calorie content and zero food value. They add nothing but bad stuff to your diet. In fact, most drinks marketed toward children are scandalously poor decisions for parents to make on behalf of their children.
Beer and wine in moderation actually have food content that makes them a healthier choice than most Americans soft drinks, but beware. It is also clear that overindulgence in alcohol is a health risk at least as serious as obesity. Alcoholic drinks are also high in calories, and they will weaken your resolve when it comes to food choices.
Fruit juices can be good in small servings, but they are loaded with sugar. When it comes to weight loss, black coffee and unsweetened tea are both basically neutral, but they go downhill fast if you add sugar and cream.
Smoothies run such a wide gamut, they will be the subject of a future post. The green smoothie you make at home can be a surprisingly tasty healthy meal alternative, but many retail establishments sell “smoothies” loaded with high fructose corn syrup and other undesirables for a decidedly unhealthy beverage choice. Drinking a blended beverage loaded with sugar and other unsavory additions is hardly a better choice than eating a large order of French fries.
It is hard to beat water. The price is right, and it is unmatched as a thirst quencher. It will satisfy your thirst without any of the negatives of the other drink choices.
Sometimes it is hard to know what the wisest choices are, and that it where a professional can help. If you are tired of failing at the weight-loss game, maybe it is time for you to consult a weight-loss clinic. On the Space Coast, Dr. Diego Velarde at the Advanced Surgical and Weight Loss Institute in Merritt Island has over ten years of clinical practice and specializes in bariatric surgery. Dr. Velarde performs minimally invasive robotic surgery using the da Vinci Surgical Robot which allows an increased range of motion and more precise movements.