How-To: Sip Smarter

This bottle says it has 110% of your daily intake of added sugars—if you drink one bottle a day, that’s 46 pounds of extra sugar each year!

The label shows that it’s all “added” sugars—nothing natural or good for your body.

If it ends in “cino,” check the label. Flavor your own brewed coffee to control the sugar and fat.

Milk includes about 3 teaspoons of natural sugar in an 8 ounce serving, but chocolate milk adds almost three more. Plus, many of us drink larger servings than that!

Even those smaller cans provide a lot of sugar, plus ingredients your body doesn’t need. If you’re low on energy, water and low-fat milk can actually help!

Sweet tea may not be the natural choice you imagine. Brew our own and control the sugar.

Be careful to choose “100% juice” drinks, so you can avoid added sugar while getting natural vitamins and minerals. You can mix juice with water to save, or go for flavored water options that are just as convenient, but have less sugar.

This one is tricky

True, there’s no sugar. But the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks are super intense. They can confuse your tastebuds and leave you craving more sweet things.

Plus, there’s 270mg of salt—four times as much as a soda. Unless you’re a serious athlete with intense workouts, sports drinks are costly and not needed. Water will do the trick!

There is some natural sugar in regular milk, plus calcium, protein and other nutrients!

There is some natural sugar in regular low-fat or fatfree milk, plus calcium, protein and other nutrients!