Disclaimer: I know very little about the science of nutrition. The information that I offer may or may not be accurate. "Proper nutrition" is complicated and varies from person to person. Matters of personal health need to be discussed with your doctor and competent nutritionists who do not have their own "health products" to sell.
As I understand it all sugars are carbohydrates, but not all carbohydrates are sugar. The reason carbohydrates and sugar are listed separately on the nutritional information of your food product is because they are different things. What I have not been able to figure out is if some or all of the sugar content is contained in the carbohydrate content or if they are separate and you add them for the total sugar content. Even if the sugars are contained in the carbohydrates, it is very important to notice how much of each you are about to ingest.
Calories are units of energy and are a necessary part of our diet. Using the adage "everything in moderation", every day if you consume more calories than you burn from activity you will gain weight. Regardless of your diet (in the nutritional sense and the weight loss sense), if you are concerned about weight gain or loss it is important to notice the calories in what you choose to eat and drink.
I'm writing this because of a "blast from the past" memory that I experienced this morning. I am a heavy drinker. I consume a lot of liquids in a day and a week. I drink copious amounts of water, tea, coffee, some juices and a moderate amount of alcohol. I'm not concerned about my alcohol intake; it's the juices I have to be careful about. I love the taste of fruit juices. And I used to kid myself about the "health benefits" of any of them. What could be bad about drinking a liquid of 100% processed fruit? Even if they are packed as "health drinks", the nutritional information on the product tells a different tale. Fruit juices are packed with carbohydrates and sugars. Furthermore, most of them contain little or no fiber and protein. They are, in fact, processed by the body as "empty calories." But they sure taste good.
I drink a lot of V8 juice which as juices go is pretty healthy. But recently I've discovered the "flavored fruit beverages" packaged by V8. My favorite one, and again relatively healthy, is Berry Bliss. It not only contains less of the bad stuff and at least some of the good stuff, but it tastes like a good glass of Welch's Grape Juice. It contains about half the calories, some fiber and one gram of protein. Even with that, I consume a bottle in small quantities over about a two week period.
So what happened this morning? Why am I writing this? When I poured the last of the Berry Bliss into my glass, it measured about four ounces. To stretch the drink I filled the glass up with water. It wasn't half bad. Well, technically, I guess it was half bad. But then it hit me ! Growing up when my mother served us Welch's Grape Juice, she diluted it with about 30% water and then added about two tablespoons of sugar. The only reason I can think of for why she did that was to make it go a lot further and save a few cents. It certainly saved no carbohydrates, sugar and calories. But what I remembered is that for years that's the way I drank Welch's Grape Juice. She and I never diluted any other juice, just grape juice. It was years later that it occurred to me that I was supposed to drink it straight. When I did, I never looked back.
Isn't it funny the things we do simply because that's the way we did it way back when? And we never stop to consider why we're doing it. It is very important that we, from time to time, take inventory of our opinions and behavior to make sure that they are our own, and are still useful and meaningful to our lives. Maybe for some it makes good financial and nutritional sense to dilute grape juice with water and load it up with sugar. For me, it doesn't. I opt for the natural sugars from the grapes. And kid myself about the rest.
My nephrologist tells me that all these fluids I consume every day help my body process the medicine I take and actually help protect my kidneys from some of its side effects.
I drink a lot. And when I travel, I stop a lot too.
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