Long before Christiano Ronaldo refused to promote Coke and claimed the superiority of water to the world in front of the press at the Euro 2020, we knew about the calorie-dense nature of sweetened beverages. Despite providing no nutritional value to our diets whatsoever, sodas and soft drinks continue to be in high demand almost everywhere. Most of its credit goes to shrewd marketing and obviously to global sugar addiction.
A can of coke contains roughly 130 calories, whereas water has none. To expend just one can’s worth of energy, one would have to run for 15 minutes. That will help only if you don’t make poor diet choices again on the same day. It should be obvious that avoiding the consumption of sweetened beverages would help you lose some weight, and you might have already been advised to do so on numerous occasions. It’s a no-brainer that replacing these beverages with just water would reduce the total energy consumption in a day and thus help you to put yourself in a calorie deficit. But is that the only benefit of picking water? Is the lack of calories the only thing in its favour?
Drinking greater volumes of water has been proven in many instances to help reduce body weight. It is a popular intervention and has been tried by the majority of people on a weight loss diet. Water when consumed with meals, is associated with reducing hunger and increasing satiety. Surprisingly, however, this doesn’t reduce the self-reported energy intake in the same individuals. This means it can help you feel full at times when your regular meals seem to be insufficient.
What is logical enough though, is that by replacing sweetened drinks with water, not only is your caloric intake reduced, but there is also an increase in the energy expenditure linked with greater water consumption, attributed to its slightly thermogenic (heat producing) effect. This means you put in fewer calories in your body, making it easier for you to achieve a caloric deficit, which is the foundation to reduce weight.
We always talk about how prevention is much better than the cure, which stands true for this as well. Preventing obesity in childhood and adolescence is extremely important, and drinking sweetened beverages has been identified as one of the risk factors of childhood obesity. Surely every parent would not let their children have too many sweets, but it is especially important to promote water intake. With all that said, I think we can all tolerate a few more trips to the loo if it means we can keep our weight in check!
 |
Drinking greater volumes of water has been proven in many instances to help reduce body weight. It is a popular intervention and has been tried by the majority of people on a weight loss diet. Water when consumed with meals, is associated with reducing hunger and increasing satiety. Surprisingly, however, this doesn’t reduce the self-reported energy intake in the same individuals. This means it can help you feel full at times when your regular meals seem to be insufficient.
What is logical enough though, is that by replacing sweetened drinks with water, not only is your caloric intake reduced, but there is also an increase in the energy expenditure linked with greater water consumption, attributed to its slightly thermogenic (heat producing) effect. This means you put in fewer calories in your body, making it easier for you to achieve a caloric deficit, which is the foundation to reduce weight.
We always talk about how prevention is much better than the cure, which stands true for this as well. Preventing obesity in childhood and adolescence is extremely important, and drinking sweetened beverages has been identified as one of the risk factors of childhood obesity. Surely every parent would not let their children have too many sweets, but it is especially important to promote water intake. With all that said, I think we can all tolerate a few more trips to the loo if it means we can keep our weight in check!
Comments
Post a Comment