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By Amy Campbell, MS, RD, CDE

As you probably know, some foods are better for you than others. Well, the same can be said for drinks: Some are better for you than others. Regular soda and fruit punch are full of sugar. Too much sugar, which is a type of carbohydrate, can cause your blood glucose level to go up. Sugar can cause cavities in your teeth, too.

Sugary drinks also contain a lot of calories. You need calories to grow and stay active, but too many calories can cause you to gain too much weight. Being at a healthy weight is important.

Other drinks may contain a lot of fat, such as whole or 2% milk. These drinks are high in calories and high in a type of fat that can harm your heart and blood vessels.

So how do you choose what to drink? To help you decide, think about which drinks might be high in carbs and how many carbs you can have at your meals and snacks. Look at the chart below for some examples.

5 Ways to Jazz Up Water

1	Try flavored seltzer water. Lemon, raspberry, mint and vanilla are just a few of the flavors you can buy.
2	Add lemon or lime juice to your water—no calories or carbs, but a lot of taste. Fruit flavored packets without calories or carbs are also available.
3	Try individual serving-size packets of sugar-free flavored powder. There are a lot of flavors to choose from, and they can be poured easily right into your water bottle.
4	Add slices of fresh lemon, lime, orange, cucumber or watermelon to a glass of water.
5	Pour just a splash of fruit juice into seltzer water for a fruit juice spritzer.

Water and Seltzer        

Water and seltzer water are your best choices because they contain nothing: no calories, no carbs and no fat. And your body needs water to stay healthy. Water is best when you’re thirsty and the great thing about water is you can drink it anytime without it affecting your blood glucose levels. If there is a label on the bottle, check it out. There are a lot of new flavored water drinks that have sugar added, so you may be getting extra carbs that weren’t part of your plan.

Vegetable Juice           

Not crazy about vegetables? You might like vegetable or tomato juice. Think of it as liquid nutrition, chock full of vitamins and minerals that can help your body grow and stay strong. Vegetable and tomato juices are very low in calories and don’t have many carbs, either.

Milk    

Milk contains calcium, Vitamin D and protein, nutrients that your bones need to stay strong. Buy non-fat (skim) or low-fat (1%) milk ­instead of reduced fat or whole milk. If you can’t drink milk, try soy milk or rice milk. If you don’t like milk, try low-fat chocolate milk. Chocolate milk has more carbs than regular milk, so you’ll need to be careful about how much you drink. Look at the label for the ­serving size and the amount of carbohydrate.

Fruit Juice        

Did you know that drinking an eight-ounce glass of orange juice has as many carbs as two small oranges? Fruit juice can raise your blood glucose level if you aren’t careful to count it into your meal plan. (That’s why fruit juice is a good choice to help treat low blood ­glucose). You also can buy light juice, which has fewer carbs and calories than the regular kind.

Soda and Other Soft Drinks     

Regular soda, fruit punch, fruit juice blends and other fruit drinks contain a type of sugar called high fructose corn syrup. This is a sweetener that is linked to causing people to become overweight. Also, these drinks contain empty calories, which means a lot of calories but not much nutrition. Even sports drinks contain high fructose corn syrup. So if you drink them, be sure to count the carbs.

Diet Soft Drinks           

What about diet soda, iced tea and other diet soft drinks? These drinks usually have no calories or very few calories, so they can be a good choice once in a while. Most diet drinks are sweetened with either aspartame (Nutrasweet) or sucralose (Splenda), two sweeteners that have no calories or carbs. However, don’t drink too much of these drinks, especially if they contain caffeine, like tea and cola.

Your Turn

1	You can drink as much fruit juice as you want because it’s all natural.	True	False
2	Milk is a good source of calcium and vitamin D, which can help build strong bones.	True	False
3	Write down one low-carb drink you will try over the next week.

Answers: 1. False. 2. True. 3. Read the article to help you make your decision.