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New Beverage Guidelines

By: Joann Bally CSCS

A panel of experts recently developed Beverage Guidelines, which are recommendations as to how much and what kind of fluids we should drink. This was apparently a response to what we actually do drink.

The average U.S. adult consumes 21% of total calories from beverages and 7.1% from sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks, contributing more than 100 calories per day more than were consumed from similar beverages 25 years ago. Does this contribute to the obesity epidemic? Maybe. In fact, likely. Sugar sweetened drinks give you calories, but no nutrition, and do not make you feel full.

Considering calories, nutrients, and health effects, here are the recommendations, based on a requirement of about 100 ounces/day of beverage for a person eating 2200 calories/day, and no more than 10% of those calories recommended from beverages.

Water. You can drink all 100 oz as water if you want. Otherwise look at 20-50 oz.

Tea and coffee, unsweetened. 0-40 oz. Both tea and coffee have health benefits, and no calories. This refers to regular tea (black, green, oolong), not herb teas, which have not been shown to have the same benefits

Low fat (1%) or skim milk and soy beverages. 0-16 oz. No whole milk—too much fat.

Noncalorically sweetened beverages. 0-32 oz. Most common are diet sodas.

Caloric beverages with some nutrients, such as fruit and vegetable juice or sports drinks. 0-8 oz (sweetened with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.)

You can also have 0-1 (for women) or 0-2 (for men) alcoholic drinks.

Here are a few comments of my own:

Vegetarians generally can get by with less water because they get a lot of liquid in their food.

You need more fluid in hot weather or when you’re working out. Sports drinks here are recommended only for endurance athletes, but they can be useful for sports teams practicing or even outdoor workers in hot weather. Also, they have only half as many calories as regular sodas. Still, it’s a special-purpose beverage.

Fruit and vegetable juices may be high in calories, but they also can be high in nutrition. Orange juice has vitamin C, potassium, folate, and sometimes added calcium. Just adjust for the calories in the beverage.

I’m not sure about noncaloric sweetened beverages. I’ve never known anyone who lost weight by drinking diet sodas. There’s a theory they may interfere with your perception of sweetness. I think 32 oz is too much.

Never start drinking alcohol for its health benefits. Some people shouldn’t drink and you may be one of them.

Don’t drink too much water. It can dilute certain minerals in your body. Thirst actually is a pretty good indicator of how much you need to drink under ordinary circumstances.

The guidelines were published in the March 2006 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 83:529-42, 2006. website www.ajcn.org

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