Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks: What's the Best Choice?
Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks: What’s the Best Choice?
Alexander B. Simon
ITT Technical Institute
Abstract
Better beverage choices can help fight and prevent obesity and diabetes. Water, of course, is the best beverage option. It delivers everything the body needs—pure H2O—with zero calories. But for some tastes, plain water is just too plain—and it may be unrealistic to ask everyone to kick the sugar-water habit overnight. We must instead work to retrain the American palate away from sweet drinks. Cutting our taste for sweetness will require concerted action on several levels—from creative food scientists and marketers in the beverage industry, as well as from individual consumers and families, schools and worksites, and state and federal government.
Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks? What’ the Best Choice?
Soft drinks are the beverage of choice for millions of Americans. Some drink them morning, noon, night, and in between. They’re tasty, available everywhere, and inexpensive. They’re also a prime source of extra calories that can contribute to weight gain. Once thought of as innocent refreshment, soft drinks are also coming under scrutiny for their contributions to the development of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Diet soft drinks, made with artificial sweeteners, may not be the best alternatives to regular soft drinks.
The term “soft drink” covers a lot of ground. It refers to any beverage with added sugar or other sweetener, and includes soda, fruit punch, lemonade and other “ades,” sweetened powdered drinks, and sports and energy drinks. In this section of The Nutrition Source, we focus on non-alcoholic sweetened drinks.
Drunk every now and then, these beverages wouldn’t raise an eyebrow among most nutrition experts, any more than does the occasional candy bar or bowl of ice cream. But few people see them as treats. Instead, we drink rivers of the stuff.
According to figures from the beverage industry, soft drink
Alexander B. Simon
ITT Technical Institute
Abstract
Better beverage choices can help fight and prevent obesity and diabetes. Water, of course, is the best beverage option. It delivers everything the body needs—pure H2O—with zero calories. But for some tastes, plain water is just too plain—and it may be unrealistic to ask everyone to kick the sugar-water habit overnight. We must instead work to retrain the American palate away from sweet drinks. Cutting our taste for sweetness will require concerted action on several levels—from creative food scientists and marketers in the beverage industry, as well as from individual consumers and families, schools and worksites, and state and federal government.
Sugary Drinks or Diet Drinks? What’ the Best Choice?
Soft drinks are the beverage of choice for millions of Americans. Some drink them morning, noon, night, and in between. They’re tasty, available everywhere, and inexpensive. They’re also a prime source of extra calories that can contribute to weight gain. Once thought of as innocent refreshment, soft drinks are also coming under scrutiny for their contributions to the development of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Diet soft drinks, made with artificial sweeteners, may not be the best alternatives to regular soft drinks.
The term “soft drink” covers a lot of ground. It refers to any beverage with added sugar or other sweetener, and includes soda, fruit punch, lemonade and other “ades,” sweetened powdered drinks, and sports and energy drinks. In this section of The Nutrition Source, we focus on non-alcoholic sweetened drinks.
Drunk every now and then, these beverages wouldn’t raise an eyebrow among most nutrition experts, any more than does the occasional candy bar or bowl of ice cream. But few people see them as treats. Instead, we drink rivers of the stuff.
According to figures from the beverage industry, soft drink
Citations: Use of this standard APA style “will result in a favorable impression on your instructor” (Smith, 2001). This was affirmed again in 2003 by Professor Anderson (Anderson, Charles & Johnson, 2003). Anderson, Charles & Johnson (2003). The impressive psychology paper. Chicago: Lucerne Publishing. Smith, M. (2001). Writing a successful paper. The Trey Research Monthly, 53, 149-150.