Drinking down those kilojoules

Posted By: Noble Beverages on Thursday, 26 June 2008

In the Courier Mail, writer John Bastick describes a Sydney banker who exercised regularly yet was unable to shed her extra kilos. Then, she started counting kilojoules and found that she was drinking almost as many kilojoules as she was eating! The point being, we tend to forget the kilojoules that we consume through drinking. As Bastick says: “Dieticians and obesity experts have long known that the fluids we drink simply don’t trip our satiety mechanisms like solids do. We eat ourselves “full”, we just can’t drink ourselves “full”. And rather than being any fault of the stomach, it’s actually the brain that’s to blame. Why do we baulk at the low-fat muffin with 400 kilojoules, yet won’t think twice about drinking the flat white with 950 kilojoules?”

Coffee, smoothies, fruit juice, soda...the list goes on. While they may taste good, all these drinks can add significant amounts to our daily kilojoule intake. And if you think having drinks with artificial sweeteners will solve the problem, forget about it! Says Bastick: “Another study from Purdue University, released in February this year, found that rats who were fed artificial sweeteners actually grew fatter than their rodent chums who were chowing down on straight sugar.”

All certainly something to consider the next time you’re thirsty and reach for a drink that’s loaded with kilojoules or artificial sweeteners. Read the full story here.