When having a soda beverage, you’re getting 300-500 calories, which is almost as much as a meal for some people, says Registered Dietitian Jason Muchnick. Is one of your biggest wellness challenges in your beverage machine?
BLR Editor Elaine Quayle recently interviewed Muchnick about sugar in soft drinks, diet sodas, fruit juices, energy drinks, and caffeine and their impact on health and wellness.
He also addressed the topics of workplace snacks and the “3 p.m. slump” that many employees experience during their workday, and provides tips for addressing it or avoiding it.
Obesity and its relation to beverage consumption has been in the news, with Mayor Bloomberg of New York City banning the sale of large size sugary drinks and many schools banning soda from their vending machines.
Employers, especially those with wellness initiatives, will be interested to hear what Muchnick has to say about the beverages sold in their facilities.
BLR: Are beverages a factor in health problems?
JM: Yes, I think so. While certainly there are a lot of factors that affect health problems, beverages may be one of the most important factors.
In a soda, you get a lot of sugar, but that’s all the nutrition you get. The other thing you get is lots of calories. And you don’t get any vitamins, minerals, or other things that the body needs to run.
Unfortunately, that soda is not going to do much for your health and it’s also not going to satisfy your hunger.
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BLR: Are diet sodas a good alternative?
JM: There’s some controversy on this topic. Whereas we are quite confident in the science that excess sugar from a regular drink can lead to a number of health problems like weight gain, and diabetes, as well as secondary problems like high blood pressure and heart disease, we’re kind of on the fence with diet soda and sugar substitutes like Sweet and Low and saccharine.
Personally, I’ve always been fine with diet sodas and sugar substitutes. Intuitively, however, since they are artificial substances, it’s probably good to limit their use.
I think that to have one or two diet sodas a day, a couple of packets of artificial sweetener during the day is fine. That’s a good tool for reducing the total amount of calories you consume.
BLR: What about juices, juice drinks, flavored waters?
Juice is more akin to a soda than an original fruit. The act of making juice is almost doing the same thing you would do when making a candy bar—you’re taking a natural substance and turning it into a concentrate of sugar.
It’s another way to consume lots of calories without much other nutritional value.
I like to use the term, “Eat your fruit don’t drink it.” With an actual piece of fruit, you’ll get a relatively low amount of sugar, plus all the fiber and nutrients that come along with that fruit.
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BLR: What about tap water? How can we encourage our employees to drink regular water?
JM: The bottled water or tap water is just fine.
Also, again as a moderated strategy,there are Crystal Light and similar products that add flavor to the water. They are artificial sweetener based, so again, don’t consume huge quantities, but they are a way to add flavor without adding any calories.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, more of Muchnick‘s wellness tips, plus an introduction to a the wellness guide that will help your program achieve 300 percent ROI.
Besides the issue of calories in sugary calories, there’s the issue of the post-sugar crash. Many employees consume sugar to perk themselves up without thinking about the inevitable crash to follow.
I think you’re sorely mistaken on the diet soda choice. The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas cause many people problems that they don’t recognize. If you are a company offering drinks to employees, you’re almost better off just offering bottled or filtered water. My favorite company offered sodas, but also offered filtered water with that nice soft crunchy ice. They had “Tervis” tumblers available, and you could just grab a nice fresh glass of water, then crunch on the ice. Don’t get me wrong…I was a coca-cola fiend. But having this alternative helped me to consume fewer sodas, I AVOIDED that 3 p.m. crash because I wasn’t wired on caffeine and sugar, and overall felt better at work. I would encourage employees to stop drinking sodas…they cause weight gain, diabetes, all sort of other problems that others will have to pay for through increased premiums. And I wouldn’t substitute diet sodas…my honest opinion is that in 10 years we will find that they are responsible for a lot of our wacky undiagnosed health issues. I feel like I have ADHD when I accidentally drink diet sodas…I think there’s something not quite right with them.
Well this is an extremely belated reply but I’ll make it anyway.
You have labeled me as “sorely mistaken,” however have only retorted with statements of faith, not oned statement of science.
“My honest opinion is that in 10 years we will find that they are responsible for a lot of our wacky undiagnosed health issues.”
Well, that’s your opinion, which you are certainly entitled to. But that’s a hypothesis which requires further research, not an answer to the artificial sweetener debate.
And I was quite clear multiple times over “that the jury is still out,” and that moderation is a good strategy if one needs to turn to artificial sweeteners. Plain water and crunching on ice is simply not going to work for everyone.
Some people literally drink four liters of soda a day or more. If a behavioral change involves a *modest* amount of artificial sweeteners, a “sugar methadone” if you will, it’s better than being addicted to sugar.
RE: chips
“Researchers at Harvard University analyzed changes in dietary habits and weight gain in more thn 120.000 American men and women between 1986 and 2006. They found that potato chips were associated with the greatest increase in weight, followed by all other forms of potatoes (e.g., French fries) and sugar-sweetened soft drinks. Weight loss was associated wit the consupmtion of vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and yogurt.” Mazaffarian D. New England journal of Medicine, 2011; 364:2392-2404.
I would not recommend another grain product to anyone. See Dr. Michael Eads Wheat Belly Blog and Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It. Grains have been genetically altered over the decades until they now result in FAR more harm than good when ingested by humans. I’m sure it’s the same for all mamals.