GULP…GULP…GULP…If that was a soda, you just chugged away almost an hour of training. From the Daily Mail article:
Health expert Dr Sarah Bleich claimed that people ‘generally underestimate’ just how many calories junk food and fizzy drinks contain.
‘Did you know that working off a bottle of fizzy drink or fruit juice takes about 50 minutes of running?
50 minutes?!?! That is a costly beverage. For every soda you drink, you need to hit the treadmill for nearly an hour of running just to come out even. Why not drink a glass of water and then spend the next hour hanging out with friends, studying or (dare I say) WORKING ON YOUR GAME!
Drinking sugared beverages has become such a problem that the CDC (Centers for DISEASE Control) published a guide to help Americans reduce their intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. That’s right, the CDC. The same government organization that treats disease and epidemics like Cancer, HIV, Tuberculosis and Meningitis.
So athletes should avoid sugared beverages? Got it. But what exactly is a sugared beverage?
SODA IN DISGUISE…
A regular 12oz can of Coca-Cola has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar! That’s insane. In fact, if you drink just one soda a day, by the end of the year you will consume 35 POUNDS of sugar. But Coke isn’t the only thing that’s bad for you. Let’s check out some “Healthy” drinks and “Sports” drinks:
- Coca Cola – 140cal/39g sugar
- Orange Juice – 160cal/36g sugar
- Vitamin Water – 100cal/20g sugar
- Gatorade – 100cal/21g sugar
Oh, Gatorade, why have you betrayed me? Et tu, OJ? Basically anything you drink outside of water is loaded with sugar and calories. And here is the real shocker: that information corresponds to only 12oz of each drink. Most sports drinks come in 20oz bottles or more, so you should actually DOUBLE those calorie/sugar numbers.
Guess it’s time to make a decision: switch to water or start running!
BUT I DON’T LIKE WATER!
Now would be the obvious time to point out that human beings who “didn’t like water” in the past were probably weeded out by natural selection. Indeed, Darwin would not be kind to these dehydrated hominids. But in today’s age of “Liquid Candy,” we have many more options to stay hydrated (albeit, unhealthy options).
You can re-train your body to love the taste of water and eliminate sugared drinks from your menu. Here are few handy tricks that I would recommend to break the sugar addiction (from Lifehacker.com’s “Learn to Love the Taste of Water” article):
- Try 7-days of “Water Only” to break your liquid sugar addiction.
- Rely on your laziness. Keep only water nearby or in your house to make sure it’s a hassle to get up to find something else.
- Change the flavor of water (you are soooo sneaky) using the following:
- Fresh Mint Leaves
- Fresh Lemon or Lime Juice
- Fresh Strawberries or other berries
Play HARD! Drink SMART! Live HEALTHY!