In the Drink - how beverages contribute to obesity

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2000 by Jackie Adriano

When it Comes to Calories, Solid is Better than Liquid

"What would you like to drink with that?" asks the waitress. Think twice before you answer.

Your body may not register the calories you drink as well as it does the calories you eat. So when you down a soda or other liquid calories before or with a meal, you may not eat less food later in the day to compensate. Making matters worse: serving sizes for beverages are ballooning ... as are Americans.

"Beverages are huge contributor to obesity," says Richard Mattes of Pudue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "They're major players that often get overlooked."

Stealth Calories

In one study by Mattes, people were asked to consume 450 calories' worth of jelly beans every day for four weeks and 450 calories' worth of soda every day for another four weeks.(1) On days they ate the jelly beans, the participants compensated by eating roughly 450 fewer calories of others foods. So they ingested no more calories than usual.

But on days they drank the soda, the participants didn't compensate. They ended up eating roughly 450 more calories than usual.

"Liquid calories don't trip our satiety mechanisms," says Mattes. "They just don't register."

More evidence that liquid calories go unnoticed: Short-term studies show that if you drink a calorie-containing beverage with a meal, you'll wind up consuming more calories at that meal than if you drink a calorie-free beverage.(2)

But what about the long term? Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia gave 20 men and women about 40 ounces a day of either regular or diet cola (made with the artificial sweetener aspartame).(3) After three weeks, the women who drank the regular cola gained an average of two pounds; the men's weight didn't change. On the diet soda, the men lost one pound and the women's weight didn't change.

"It doesn't matter if you drink them with a meal or before a meal," says Barbara Rolls of the Pennsylvania State University, author of Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories (HarperCollins, 2000). "The calories from most drinks add on to--rather than displace--food calories."

And that has added on to the nation's obesity epidemic, argues Mattes. "Over the last 20 years, we've gotten fatter, but what's really changed is that we're drinking a lot more calories than we ever did before."

The Bottomless Cup

In the 1950s, a "family size" bottle of Coke was 26 ounces. Now soft drink sizes at McDonald's for one person range from 12 ounces (for children) to 42 ounces. A "Double Gulp" at 7-Eleven convenience stores holds 64 ounces. That's eight cups--a huge serving even if you get it with ice. And the soft drinks you get at movie theaters like Loews and some AMCs (which can hit 44 ounces) often come with free refills.

"Sweetened soft drinks add more calories to our diet than any other beverage," notes Rolls.

America's appetite for soft drinks is at an all-time high, with no signs of slowing down. Soda pop dwarfs all other beverages we consume. Even if you subtract diet sodas--about a quarter of the market--it's still the number-one beverage (see "Sweetened Soda Rules," p.7).

And it's not just soft drinks. A "venti" Caffe Latte at Starbucks is 20 ounces. A large shake at McDonald's or a Dunkin' Donuts Coolata is 32 ounces. And a single-serve bottle of just about any beverage--Arizona Iced Tea, Gatorade, Fruitopia, you name it--can run as high as 20 ounces.

Look at the "Nutrition Facts" labels on those bottles and you'll see calories listed for an eight-ounce (one-cup) serving (as if people split the bottle into 2 1/2 servings).

But other than children who get an eight-ounce carton of milk with their school lunch, it's hard to know who stops at one cup any more. You can't even buy an eight-ounce drink at many restaurants. A "small" drink at McDonald's is 16 ounces. And large sit-down restaurant chains like Applebee's, Chili's, Denny's, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, and T.G.I. Friday's start you off with 14 to 22 ounces of soda ... and offer free refills.

Even alcoholic beverages are ballooning. T.G.I. Friday's sells 18-ounce cocktails like the Ultimate Daiquiri, Hawaiian Volcano, Long Island Iced Tea, Margarita, or Mudslide.

Restaurants like Applebee's, Olive Garden, and T.G.I. Friday's offer either 16-ounce or 22-ounce draft beers. And at restaurants like Romano's Macaroni Grill and Buca di Beppo, two Italian sit-down chains, a serving of wine can be ten ounces.

(When the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and health authorities advise men to stop at two drinks a day and women to stop at one, they're talking about a five-ounce serving of wine, a 12-ounce serving of beer, or 1.5 ounces of liquor. Do patrons who drink alcohol at some restaurants know that each glass may contain two servings?)

And as mugs and glasses grow, so grow our bellies and bottoms. Twenty ounces of most beverages--even juice or milk--mean 200 to 450 calories. A 32-ounce large shake at McDonald's means 720 calories. A 32-ounce large Dunkin' Donuts Coolata means 820.