Hidden Calories In Drinks

One of the major categories of hidden calories is in the number of high calorie drinks that we consume. While one drink won't ruin your diet, in today's society it is not unusual to drink a number of caloric coffees, lattes and smoothies over the course of the day. Many of these drinks contain a high number of calories from sugar and fat, while offering no nutrition in return.

While many diets list coffee and tea as "free" foods, they expect you to drink them without sugar or milk. There is a big difference between black coffee and a modern latte, especially when the servings are large and loaded with sugar and cream.

While considering your drinking habits, don't ignore fruit juices. Although these drinks have a healthy element if made from fresh fruits, they are high in natural sugar and may even have added sugars. All of the healthy fiber is stripped from the juices, yielding a sweet juice that quickly affects your blood sugar levels and can encourage hunger and cravings.

• Sweet Drinks Encourage Overeating
  Sweet drinks do nothing to curb your hunger and they may even encourage you to overeat. Studies have shown that sweet drinks cause food cravings, especially for starchy and sweet foods. These cravings may lead to overeating in addition to the added calories from the drink.
• Diet Sodas Aren't the Answer
  While diet sodas seem like a perfect solution because they contain no calories, studies have shown that diet sodas can actually contribute to weight gain. The exact cause isn't known, but it seems that diet sodas lead to food cravings and affect the way that your body processes sugars. Recent studies have shown that some of the ingredients in artificial sweeteners actually encourage your body to store fat.
• The best Diet Drinks
  The best diet drink is pure water, followed by unsweetened green tea in a close second place. Pure water not only fills your stomach without causing cravings, but it helps your body purge the toxins and by-products of the fat burning process. Unlike sweetened and flavored watery drinks, pure water is absorbed directly into the body without requiring digesting. This means that it does not stimulate the digestive system like other drinks and does not cause hunger.

Watch for these hidden calories in your diet and try to replace some or all of them with pure water and green tea. This one change alone could save you hundreds of calories a day, depending on your habits.

Freshly brewed green tea has been shown to have a variety of health benefits including protection from a number of modern diseases due to the powerful anti-oxidants that it contains. The important thing here is that green tea has been shown to increase weight loss when enjoyed with a healthy weight loss plan. Plan to enjoy three to five cups of green tea daily.