Kilojoule Bomb In Your Beverages

Category: Health News

There are four-and-a-half slices of bread in your glass of wine and three-and-a-half slices of bread in your Grapetiser – in terms of kilojoules, that is. Shocked? Read on.The day when the addition of sugar to water was conceived was arguably the moment in time when all of western civilization was doomed to rounder tummies, thighs and hips – as well as an escalating obesity epidemic.

Just think about it for a moment: isn’t it better just to stick to plain, unsweetened water and other low-kilojoule drinks instead of piling on the kilos with sugar-laden beverages?

Beverages were never meant to be kilojoule bombs. Beverages were meant to be, well, beverages. Their sole purpose: to quench thirst.

Right now, however, we’re at a point where one of the most popular drinks on the planet – a 340ml can of Coke – fetches a whopping 585 on the kilojoule scale. And don’t be fooled by the healthy image of fruit juices. While these may be more “natural”, a drink such as Grapetiser ranks even higher on the scale: 762kJ for a 340ml can.

Maybe it’s time to take a good look at the drinks in your life. Consider the following:

Now, bear in mind that a single slice of white bread (without any toppings) has a kilojoule count of 221.

Effectively, this means that a 250ml glass of dry white wine has as many kilojoules as four-and-a-half slices of bread. A can of cider or milk stout isn’t far behind, and neither are Coke, Fanta and Grapetiser. Even a small glass of apple juice has more kilojoules than two slices of bread.

Think of what you had to drink during the whole of yesterday: orange juice for breakfast, two cups of coffee and a latte at the office, a can of Coke on your way home, a glass of wine with dinner, and a glass of water before bed. A rough estimation of your kilojoule intake: 3400 kJ (equivalent to 15 slices of bread!).

What to drink:

The number of kilojoules you can save if you cut sugar from your beverages is immense. So what should you be drinking? A US Beverage Guidance Panel recently rated a range of beverages in terms of their potential health benefits or possible risks, according to a fact sheet released by the Nutrition Information Centre of the University of Stellenbosch (NICUS).

The panel rated drinking water as the preferred drink to fulfill daily fluid needs. With water, one can never go wrong , except, perhaps if you’re in an area where the water isn’t safe to drink. But then you can opt for bottled water. Just make sure that you choose still or sparkling water without the added sugar and flavourants.

Water is highly recommended for daily intake. It provides no additional energy, which makes it very ideal for any overweight or inactive adult. It also provides variable amounts of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, depending on it’s source, – NICUS says.

Article by Carine van Rooyen, Health24

Reference: The New Complete Kilojoule, Carbohydrate & Fat Counter: South African Edition. Published by STRUIK (2006).

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