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Soda & Other Drinks
Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages add unneeded calories to your diet without providing any beneficial nutrients. One 12-ounce can of soda has 41 grams of sugar, which is equivalent to about 10 teaspoons! The daily guidelines for sugar call for limiting sugar to no more than 12 teaspoons per day for a 2,000 calorie diet. Yet the average American drinks 576 cans of soda per year – that’s almost two a day!
The best way to keep your kids from drinking soda is NOT TO BUY IT. Instead of soda, offer your kids water to drink – it’s the ideal beverage! Adopt a family-wide policy to drink water at meals – even when eating out – and eventually your kids will stop craving the sugary soft drinks. You will be teaching them a habit that they will benefit from for the rest of their lives, and you’ll be saving money, too!
A Word About Juice
Fruit juice, while it does contain some nutrients, also contains a lot of natural sugars, tends to be high in calories, and is filling so it can decrease your child’s appetite for other more nutritious foods. Juice is OK for your kids to drink, but mix it with water to ensure that your child is not getting too many added calories. An even better option would be whole fruit – for example, orange slices instead of orange juice – because it contains valuable fiber that the juice does not.
Explore the following resources to learn more about the benefits of drinking water over soda.
Additional Resources:
