Beverage Selection To Help Reduce Weight

Best Bets for Beverages

If you’re following a healthy eating plan, what you drink is just as important as what you eat. Certain beverages can be diet busters — for example, store-bought fruit juices that contain sugar. Other beverages, such as water, 1% or fat-free milk, and sugar-free drinks are recommended to help you reach your weight-loss goals. It is always best to eliminate fruit juices, sodas, and other drinks containing sugar, fructose, corn syrup, or other “hidden” sweeteners. Also avoid all alcoholic beverages — beer, cocktails, and wine.

Instead, I encourage you to enjoy vegetable-juice cocktail, tomato juice, unsweetened flavored waters, and sugar-free powdered drink mixes. Of course, you can always have plain water, club soda, seltzer, and mineral water, as well as herbal teas. You can choose caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea, or diet soda, but don’t go overboard. Interestingly, recent research has shown caffeine may actually improve insulin resistance in people with diabetes.

Recommended Beverages

Caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and tea
Caffeinated and decaffeinated diet, sugar-free sodas and drinks
Herbal teas (such as peppermint and chamomile)
Fat-free or 1% milk
Soymilk, low-fat plain, vanilla, or sucralose-containing (4 grams or less fat per 8-ounce serving). Be sure that the product does not contain high-fructose corn syrup.
Sugar-free powdered drink mixes
Tomato juice
Vegetable-juice cocktail

Beverages to Avoid

Alcohol of any kind, including beer and wine
Fruit juice, all types
Milk, full-fat and 2%
Powdered drink mixes containing sugar
Soda and other drinks containing sugar
Soy milk with more than 4 grams fat per 8-ounce serving