Sugary Soft Drinks

We've been reading the grams of sugar drink on labels for years. Super high.
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I've always have known the word "illiteracy", but just learned the word "innumeracy". When it comes to many things--pay day loans, lottery tickets, sugar/salt in our foods--often we're innumerate.
 
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MBAustin said:
The only time I drink a sugary soda is for medical reasons - when recovering from an upset stomach or prepping for colonoscopy. Canada Dry ginger ale is my favorite, with Sprite or 7up next.
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My wife drinks a Coke (preferably Mexican Coke which uses sugar in lieu of HFCS) when she gets a headache that won't go away with Advil. Usually helps!
 
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audreyh1 said:
Those Izze sodas have over 28g sugar which is still pretty high. They tasted incredibly sweet to me. I tried cutting them with sparkling water but then all I could taste was the grape juice filler.
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I was grocery shopping today and picked up a Gatorade out of curiosity, 21g of sugar for a 12 oz bottle. I rarely drink it, but now I probably won't drink them at all. I already drink (unsweet) iced tea when I'm out, I may start making it at home too.
 
It's hard to see how sugar (sucrose) is significantly different from HFCS (typically a 45:55 blend of glucose:fructose for soft drinks). Sucrose, commonly known as table sugar, consists of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose. Sugars like sucrose that consist of two or more molecules are called polysaccharides joined by a glycosidic bond. Glucose and fructose are digested, absorbed and metabolized separately (so equivalent to HFCS). HFCS is just much cheaper as it's derived from corn.

Just one writeup (there are countless others nowadays), but it seems contrary to earlier "conventional wisdom," most of the current studies say there's little if any difference http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=486.

I'm not defending HFCS, I am suggesting equal amounts of sucrose are nutritionally no better, but we'll all make our own choices.
 

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Obviously, glucose/dextrose is a simple sugar, and that's why it is preferred for athletes in recovery: easily and quickly converted to glycogen for recovery.

As to sucrose vs. HFCS, I've got some reading material about the different kinds of sugars at home. I'll take a look at it and post a summary if it's germane to the discussion.
 
Interestingly, Coke is used during ultra-endurance events as a mid-race quick-energy fuel by a lot of high level athletes, including Ironman World Champions. Counterintuitive, but it works. I drank Coke towards the end of my 2007 half Ironman event when I was really struggling with GI distress as well as low energy (the dreaded "Bonk"). The carbonation eased my stomach. The sugar and caffeine really helped get me to the finish line...
 
Wishing said:
I'm a recently admitted carbohydrate addict. I haven't had a non-diet soft drink in decades. I'm a distance runner and thought I was eating relatively healthy. I blamed my age for my weight gain and inability to take if off in spite of dieting and a lot of exercise. I whined to my endocrinologist who handed me his diet for overweight diabetics. The diet essentially cuts out all sugar and most fatty foods. I've dropped 15 pounds in the last 6 weeks without a second thought - no obsessing over calories. It's amazing how much sugar is in processed foods. I only get 1 piece of fruit/day, so I'm eating mostly vegetables and meat. I have oatmeal with Splenda for breakfast. There are some wonderful protein bars with a gram or less of sugar that get me through the afternoon.
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It's great that you eliminated most sugar, but eliminating fatty foods is not only not necessary, it's not a good idea. Get rid of the unhealthy fats (most of the seed oils, margarine, trans fats), but you really should not be afraid of healthy fats - things like coconut oil, butter (best from pastured cows), olive oil. In fact, at least 50% of the calories you consume should come from these healthy fats. Do some research if you don't believe me. Eating mostly vegetables and meat is great (I do the same), but don't be afraid to include plenty of healthy fats. The whole saturated fat-phobia thing that has been pounded into our heads for years is completely wrong.
 
RAE said:
It's great that you eliminated most sugar, but eliminating fatty foods is not only not necessary, it's not a good idea. Get rid of the unhealthy fats (most of the seed oils, margarine, trans fats), but you really should not be afraid of healthy fats - things like coconut oil, butter (best from pastured cows), olive oil. In fact, at least 50% of the calories you consume should come from these healthy fats. Do some research if you don't believe me. Eating mostly vegetables and meat is great (I do the same), but don't be afraid to include plenty of healthy fats. The whole saturated fat-phobia thing that has been pounded into our heads for years is completely wrong.
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After decades of being told saturated fats are "bad", now many sources are indeed claiming otherwise. There are even some sources (New Book Makes the Case That Saturated Fat Is Good for You - TIME) claiming we'd better be careful eliminating trans-fats, some alternatives could be as bad or worse - and what happened with added sugar during the low-fat craze years is evidence we can go from bad to bad.

Who knew saturated fats were OK before recently, if they are?

What's to say another study won't come along and take hold claiming sat fats are "bad" again? And people will proselytize about that as if it's been self-evident all along...

I don't take any study as gospel. I've watched eggs go from good to bad to good too many times. Just one example of many!

I've come to believe (not at all original):
  • fats, carbs, protein all in moderation
  • avoiding processed foods as much as possible, including artificial anything including all the artificial sweeteners, butter substitutes, etc.
  • avoiding ingredients I can't pronounce unless I already know what they are
  • calories in - calories out is nonsense
  • thank goodness we have nutrition labels and ingredient listings, it would be a lot tougher without them
YMMV
 
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aja8888 said:
Also, there is sugar in most foods and alcoholic beverages, including wine (which I used to make - lots of sugar is used to ferment into alcohol.
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Hold on now, lets not wreck our retirement years. You forgot what all that fermenting does -- i.e., convert the sugar to alcohol. Sweet, desert wines have a lot of residual sugar but most dry table wines have only a few grams per glass. Still more than a few calories in a glass of wine but the metabolic channels are vastly different than sugar. Now add in all of the recently reported spurious correlations showing that a bit of alcohol improves health outcomes and you almost have to have a glass with dinner. :) Seriously, though, you can pick your poisons to a degree.

I think Nash's post summed things up about right - eat real foods and watch for added sugars. The only caveat I would add is Chuckanaut's comment - changing the intake balance a bit to favor protein and fat while keeping overall carbs down (he cited 100g/day which is about where I am) will allow many of us to self regulate. I.e., once we get the macro nutrient mix right our appetite will balance with our requirements without any need to count calories. To the extent that you use packaged/processed foods you still need to pay attention to food labels to avoid sneaky added sugars and high loads of carbs but you quickly figure out what foods to pick and pretty much go on autopilot.
 
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On warm days I always have chilled Safeway Brand seltzer in the fridge. It hits the spot, and is cheap enough in those 12 packs. Maybe I'll also squeeze some lemon or lime into it.

Ha
 
donheff said:
I think Nash's post summed things up about right - eat real foods and watch for added sugars. The only caveat I would add is Chuckanaut's comment - changing the intake balance a bit to favor protein and fat while keeping overall carbs down (he cited 100g/day which is about where I am) will allow many of us to self regulate. I.e., once we get the macro nutrient mix right our appetite will balance with our requirements without any need to count calories. To the extent that you use packaged/processed foods you still need to pay attention to food labels to avoid sneaky added sugars and high loads of carbs but you quickly figure out what foods to pick and pretty much go on autopilot.
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All of this is spot on. My carb load is higher than 100g/day because of my training/racing needs, but in the offseason I focus on protein and (good, including saturated) fat. The saying SHOULD go: "An avocado a day keeps the doctor away."
 
donheff said:
Hold on now, lets not wreck our retirement years. You forgot what all that fermenting does -- i.e., convert the sugar to alcohol. Sweet, desert wines have a lot of residual sugar but most dry table wines have only a few grams per glass.
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And remember that distilled spirits (bourbon, scotch, vodka, etc.) don't have any sugar it them, though many people add sweet mixers to them.

Pure alcohol does have calories though, just no carbs.
 
Being the INTJ type, I find it fascinating to read the nutrition info on every single thing I consume. If I'm at a restaurant, I try to find it on my smart phone. There are some foods that tend to be thought of as healthy whose label surprised me. Most yogurts are #1 on my surprise list. The majority of those at my grocery store have 15-20g+ of sugar, some significantly more than that. Fage Greek 0% or 2% are pretty respectable, but will be a big change if you're used to the standard Dannon/Yoplait type stuff.

Nash: what is your typical daily fat/carb/protein breakdown? My biggest challenge is trying to get up to my daily maintenance calories (including 500-2000 net neg. for exercise) without getting crazy ratios. I often hit 200g of lean protein which is %30 more than body weight. Much more than that and my digestive system stalks to balk. Fat often ends up around 45% (avocados, nuts, etc), which still leaves a lot of carbs. Most carbs come from fruit, lentils and oatmeal. A pint of berries may have 30g carbs but less than 100 calories, so I'm left almost having to eat some high-fiber whole grain bread.
 
Coke bottles held only 6.5 oz (one third the size of the OP's Pepsi, so one third the calories) until 1955. My dad drank a six pack in a week. We kids had none.

Portion control for me trumps carbs vs fat vs protein effects, but hard to implement when the standard sizes are insane.
 
someguy said:
Nash: what is your typical daily fat/carb/protein breakdown? My biggest challenge is trying to get up to my daily maintenance calories (including 500-2000 net neg. for exercise) without getting crazy ratios. I often hit 200g of lean protein which is %30 more than body weight. Much more than that and my digestive system stalks to balk. Fat often ends up around 45% (avocados, nuts, etc), which still leaves a lot of carbs. Most carbs come from fruit, lentils and oatmeal. A pint of berries may have 30g carbs but less than 100 calories, so I'm left almost having to eat some high-fiber whole grain bread.
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I don't count calories, but if I had to guess, I'd be 40/30/30. IMO, you're taking in way too much protein, and if your ratios are correct, I'd recommend you increase your carb intake if you're exercising strenuously. Sounds like you are based on 500-2000 calories burned.

I eat about 100g of protein per day, at ~150lbs. The most I've ever seen recommended even by Paleo advocates is 1g/lb of lean body mass. That means if you're 200lbs and 10% body fat, you should take in 180g of protein. That's still too much IMO, but certainly 30% over body weight is more than your body can process, and can actually be harmful to your kidney function.

Ideas for carb intake for an athlete: focus on fruit - I eat probably five or six servings per day coming from berries, cherries, apples, figs, and oranges mostly. You'll get plenty of fiber from the whole fruits. After training, take in simple sugars. I use 16oz OJ, 3 or 4 tbs of glucose/dextrose, a banana, and a few tbs of whey protein powder blended. About 500 calories, most from simple sugar, and it works. I only use that after hard intervals or long (>1 hr) moderate workouts. I don't add the glucose for shorter or easier workouts; I might just have a banana. I also snack on dried fruit like raisins and sweetened cranberries after workouts for their blood alkilinity response as well as simple sugar.

At dinner after my day's training is done, on hard or long days, I'll have half a yam or a little brown rice too. I've found this helps me bounce back well.

When I was doing a lot of CrossFit and training for endurance events, I didn't recover well because my carb intake was too low. Bottom line: your body needs sugar if you're training hard. Just make sure you get it from the right places.

I'm no teetotaler: I have bread or pasta once a week, but it's not a regular part of my diet.

Do a little bit of reading on Glycemic Load. I think it's more useful than Glycemic Index because it takes into account the calories in whatever you're eating along with the insulin response. You'll see things like refined carbs have very high GL, but berries, yams, etc. are much lower. Focus on low GL most of the time. After training, eat whole foods with higher GL to aid recovery.
 
Bestwifeever said:
Coke bottles held only 6.5 oz (one third the size of the OP's Pepsi, so one third the calories) until 1955. My dad drank a six pack in a week. We kids had none.

Portion control for me trumps carbs vs fat vs protein effects, but hard to implement when the standard sizes are insane.
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We laughed ourselves sick when I was 9 or 10 and my mom brought home one of the early 2L bottles of Coke. The idea of a family of four ever drinking that amount of pop seemed absolutely preposterous. In college I had a roommate with a "metabolic" problem that "caused" her obesity. She went through one or more 2L bottles per day.

Portion control works best for me, too. Eliminating THE magic ingredient has never worked for me although I will say that high fat/low carb is substantially more palatable than the other way 'round. Too palatable, unfortunately....
 
I was addicted to diet soft drinks until a few years ago. Then the news came out saying that sugary soft drinks were better for you than diet drinks. So I switched to regular coke/pepsi - about 1 per day. Now I cut back to 1 coke or pepsi every 2 or 3 days. Hope to cut back more in the future
 
Ronstar said:
I was addicted to diet soft drinks until a few years ago. Then the news came out saying that sugary soft drinks were better for you than diet drinks. So I switched to regular coke/pepsi - about 1 per day. Now I cut back to 1 coke or pepsi every 2 or 3 days. Hope to cut back more in the future
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And eggs were good, no eggs were bad, no ..wait eggs are ok ......wait for it.....
 
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