Seltzer, an Alternative for Soothing Your Thirst

05/07/07 What's better on a hot day than a cold drink? Often a lot of us reach for high calorie beverages — sodas, juices, flavored and sweetened teas, lemonade and iced coffee. These are the beverages that might be available when there is nothing on your mind but satisfying your thirst, and consequently, calories don't matter.

However, the calories do add up quickly in a lot of these drinks. And since the calories in beverages don't quite fill us up, then we might be adding another 200 or 300 extra calories into our day without even realizing it. And remember, just shaving off an extra 100 or 200 calories per day could result in weight loss.

So why not be a little more careful about the beverage you choose? Soda is typically 12 calories per ounce. And most people don't believe it, but juice is a whopping 14 calories per ounce! Albeit, juice has an added benefit of vitamins and minerals compared to soda, but it still adds up in calories. Think about a tall glass of orange juice; if it's 16 oz. that is roughly 224 calories! Then there are the sweetened iced teas. Green tea is good for us, right? Not if it's loaded with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Lipton Iced Green Tea is about 10 calories per ounce. Those Snapple's can be tricky, too. Read the nutrition label and it says 100 calories. But that's only for half of the bottle. A typical Snapple is about 12 calories per ounce.

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