How I Cut Sugar and HFCS From My Drinks (Homemade Iced Tea and Lemonade Recipes Included)
I spent years drinking more sugar than I realized, mostly through soda and coffee. Cutting it back was not dramatic or miserable once I figured out the right approach. I drink mostly water, coffee, tea, and homemade lemonade now, and I genuinely do not miss the soda. This post covers what changed my thinking, how I drink more water without dreading it, and two simple homemade drink recipes at the bottom that cost almost nothing to make.
Over the years I read a lot of research on sugary drinks and weight gain. One study found that calories from drinks do not trigger the same satiety signals as calories from food. If you drink a 200 calorie beverage, your body largely does not compensate by making you less hungry. You just consume those calories on top of everything else.
Another study split participants into two groups. One group received an extra 450 calories a day from jelly beans, the other from soda, then they were swapped. The group eating jelly beans consumed about 100 fewer calories overall because their bodies partially compensated for the solid food. The soda group showed almost no compensation. The drink calories simply added on top.
And that is before you get to the ingredient that replaced sugar in most American soft drinks starting in the 1980s.
