Are your summer drinks making you fat?

[Mara]

The View had an interesting segment on this today...here are some highlights...

With all these hot days we are all fans of the cold, refreshing summer drinks right? Well check this out!

a frozen margarita is 800 calories
an apple martini is 400 calories (sorry appletini!!)
1000 calories in a long island iced tea

a mojito is only 65 calories, but watch the sugar
vodka is the best alcohol to have calorie wise, aka a diet tonic with vodka.

jamba juice has as many calories as a whole plate of nachos (i'd so much rather have the nachos!)
mocha frappucino is as many calories as a plate of chocolate chip cookies!!

those colored, flavored vitamin water has a lot of calories in it and sugar...it's eqiuvalent to one scoop of ice cream with sprinkles. i'd SO much rather have the ice cream.

extra 100 or 150 calories a day may not sound like much but if you are not burning that additional calorie consumption off, then within a month you will have gained 1+ lbs just from drinking something like a vitamin water every day.

when you drink fruit juices, make sure it's 100% fruit juice, no additives or fillers. the natural sugars in 100% are healthier for you.

wine is the 2nd healthiest drink behind vodka, a 5 oz glass has 100 calories, and red is better than white since it has the extra anti-oxidants etc in it (and probably less sugar than whites)

after watching this i'm so glad that i drink just plain iced water 90% of the time...i have iced tea sometimes with no sugar for lunch and i have a full calorie coke at restaurants once or twice a week and that's it. though i am a sucker for the frozen guava margaritas maybe about 2ce a month at our local mexi restaurant.

 

[MelissaSue]

v. interesting Mara! My summer drinks probably ARE making me fat!! Its so weird how liquor doesn''t have to have calorie info on it.. I bet my pina coladas are WAAAAY up there calorie wise!!

 

[firebirdgold]

I recently joined weight watchers and was shocked that most of my weekly discretionary points are going towards drinks!! Gatorade, lemonade, those vitamin drinks, etc.... I''m trying now to replace the gatorade and the flavored water drinks with emergen-C mixed in a water bottle. Makes me feel better, tastes good, and has virtually no calories.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Funny you ask this! About a month ago I got this absolutely inexplicable UNDENIABLE craving for a belini. I think I''ve only ever had one once before in my life, but I HAD to have it. Now we have a fridge stocked with cheap sweet champagne and organic peach juice (the only kind we can find--is there no market for peach juice? and at Whole Foods no less; SO expensive!). I don''t even want to THINK about the calories involved...

 

[Allisonfaye]

I gave up alcohol three and a half years ago due to being pregnant and nursing (still am nursing). I pretty much only drink LaCroix, coffee with splenda or an occasional diet coke. I figure giving up the alcohol saves me a ton of calories. Unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth for desserts though. That sounds like an interesting segment on the View. I wish I had seen it.

 

[ephemery1]

These days my friends and I are in the habit of drinking vodka w/ club soda almost exclusively. Zero calories in club soda, and low calories in vodka. It takes a little getting used to, since you''re essentially just drinking fizzy, watered-down vodka... but it was like making the switch to Diet Coke for me... after a while, I didn''t even LIKE the "real" stuff anymore. Also significantly lowers your hangover risk (sugary mixers + dark liquors = NASTY hangovers)... just in case you have one too many!

 

[Gypsy]

I''ve been doing water and crystal light mostly... or unsweetened ice tea. I drink so rarely-- maybe once a month or once every two months that I just drink what I want. But then I only have two drinks before I stop. Even with that... I won''t be ordering any long island ice teas. Belini''s, sangria, mojitos are my favs. I don''t drink Vodka. Actually the only hard alcohol I drink is rum.

But why''s the rum gone?

 

[FireGoddess]

I usually drink crystal light or icewater with lemon in the summer. However, in defense of Jamba Juice I will say that yes, you have to be careful about the calorie content of some of the smoothies (ie. the peanut butter moo''ed has 850 calories!!!) and most of them hover at around 450 calories or so. But their new ''enlightened'' smoothies are all around 250-300 cal. Much more doable. I''ve been having those for breakfast lately. As with everything, just gotta watch out and inform yourself!!

 

[mrssalvo]

800 calories is in a frozen margarita

. I love those when we go for mexican and i usually have 2

. I had heard about how many calories and fat Starbucks frappacino's have. Even the light version are high and with no whip, what's the point?? i like red wine though and so glad it's not 1000 calories like the long island iced tea

 

[Linda W]

OH NO, I am with you Mrs. S. I LOVE frozen Margaritas, and usually have two with my Mexican Food. Not to mention the chips and salsa before the food. HA!

I don''t care for those frozen drinks at Starbucks though. They are way to sweet for me. OK ladies, no throwing tomatoes at me now.

Linda

 

[Mara]

pina coladas were on there but i didn't write it down since i don't like them...i think they were something like 700 or 800 calories. it was really close to the long island iced tea.

also, the interesting thing for me was their 'this is comparable to'...because i am a HUGE dessert person. so they were like well you can have an apple martini OR a piece of german chocolate cake. and i was like HELLO CAKE PLEASE!!! and same with things like the nachos or the jamba because i love nachos! hmm big plate of nachos with everything on them or a jamba juice? no brainer!

also in terms of any of the drinks or frozen drinks mentioned, the gal said that drinks, even blended or whipped ones typically fly beneath our bodies radar to determine that we are 'full'...so she was like you won't stay full for long if at all on any of these drinks...i could see the smoothies maybe if they were loaded with wheat germ or flax seed or things like fiber in them...but for the most part those are not what people tend to drink. most people i know who like jamba use it as a 'meal' for lunch and are hungry a few hours later AND have consumed like 500-800 in calories for a meal that didn't even fill them up.

it's funny because drinks ARE typically not thought of as consuming calories since it's a fluid and not a solid. but wow some of these calorie counts were INSANE!!!!

 

[AmberWaves]

I used to manage a jamba juice in LA, and the smoothies are intended to be a replacement for lunch. BUT, you don''t factor in how much sugar in these smoothies. I rememember someone comparing them to a big mac or something, the only difference being calories from sugar vs. fat in the big mac. The smoothies all have fro-yo, sherbet, or sorbet and the sorbet was the sweetest one there. The thing about Jamba is, they''re almost addicting. And usually you DO get them with lunch, or shortly thereafter. We would have clients who would wait at the gate for us to open. And not for the orange juice, but for something with fro-yo.. It was crazy!

 

[justjulia]

Summer drinks? I''m chuckling because for me it''s Mayfield chocolate milk. totally addicted -
You did make me remember how much I like rum and coke!

 

[pinkflamingo]

i have started to make sugarfree lemonade vodkas- very few calories and the flavored vodkas these days make it interesting. i put them in my drink shaker, and serve in a martini glass, 2:1 ratio lemonade to vodka, mmmm...


i love drinks... maybe more than cake.

 

[eleguin]

I used to be hooked on those specialty frapped coffee drinks (Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, you name it). FI and I always got the largest size they had (we figured, supersizing isn''t so bad when you''ve got 2 people) and we''d always top it off with whipped cream (our thought: since we''re already consuming all those calories, what''s a little more?). But I started to go healthy earlier this year so I cut out ALL drinks with sugar in it. I stopped buying soda, OJ, or anything that contains sugar and started only drinking water or iced tea without sugar.

If you want to diet and be healthy, something has to go. I totally agree with Mara, I''d sooo much rather have 800 calories worth of yummy solid food (like nachos or cake!) than a cup of anything else

 

[Mara]

eleguin, it''s interesting because if people DO currently consume a lot of drinks like the ones listed above, just imagine how JUST cutting out drinks like that totally and drinking all water or tea or similar could change their calorie consumption! people could actually lose a fair amount of weight if they cut out about 500 calories of just drinks per day! insane to think about that but true.

 

[Linda W]

Alright you ladies, I am not reading this thread anymore. Now I am hungry for a big piece of Key Lime Pie.

Linda

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 7/21/2006 4:24:55 PM
Author: Linda W
Alright you ladies, I am not reading this thread anymore. Now I am hungry for a big piece of Key Lime Pie.

Linda

No you didn''t Linda, you did not just say KEY LIME PIE!!!!!!

For all you lemon lovers, I did have a piece of lemon merengue pie yesterday and it was delish. But lime? mmmmm.

 

[Linda W]

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I will take Lemon too. Meyers Lemon. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMY

Linda

 

[hlmr]

WOW! I had no idea there were that many calories in the frozen drinks! YIKES!! I guess I had better stick with my red wine and lose those yummy sweet drinks in a hurry!

 

[pinkflamingo]

speaking of key lime pie,
my fave restaurant in Seattle, Paragon in Queen Anne, has a fabulous bar and they serve key lime martinis with Stoli vanilla vodka, lime juice... oh, they are so good! i have been trying to duplicate the recipe but I can't figure it out. it doesn't have half and half like a lot of the recipes i encountered (gross- wouldn't it curdle w/the lime juice?)

anyway, it is such a perfect refreshing drink!

 

[Linda W]

OMG, that sounds absolutely DELICIOUS. I bet one isn''t enough.

Linda

 

[pinkflamingo]

nope- i can never order just one!
but they have so many unique specialty cocktails, that i never can order the same thing twice. best of all, it is within easy walking distance to my parents house!!

 

[sumbride]

Date: 7/21/2006 4:05:20 PM
Author: pinkflamingo
i have started to make sugarfree lemonade vodkas- very few calories and the flavored vodkas these days make it interesting. i put them in my drink shaker, and serve in a martini glass, 2:1 ratio lemonade to vodka, mmmm...

We''ve been doing lemonade with Raspberry vodka all summer and it''s awesome! But we don''t bother with the martini glass... it goes straight into the big plastic tumbler for the patio. Two tumblers later it''s like we''ve had 4 or 5 drinks, but we forget that. Very tasty though!

 

[divergrrl]

Yah, I never ever drink anything with calories. Not even juice. I''d rather eat my fruit than drink it.

Coffee? Black
Tea? unsweeted & plain
Water, water water

The only calorie drink i have is red or white wine (90 cals) and a tall non-fat latte occasionally from starbucks. (just espresso - zero calories- and steamed non fat milk -90 calories)

Good article though!

Oh my mom & I make diet margaritas. Key Lime juice (0 calories) splenda & tequila! Ole!!! only calories are from the tequila!

Jeannine

 

[pinkflamingo]

my favorite margarita recipe- shake in a shaker and serve in a large martini glass... it is a recipe DH and I have perfected for years.


1.5 shots of tequila (a shot is not all the way to the top of a shot glass.)
1 full to the rim shot glass of Rose's lime juice
1 shot of triple sec (if you think it is too sour, adjust amount of triple sec slightly)

shake and serve with a sliver of lime and/or rim the glass with lime juice and sugar in the raw.

SOO good- try it!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Yup, every summer I get sucked into the blended slurpee type boozie drinks, all the while knowing they go straight to my thighs....gotta love them!!

cheers--Sharon

 

[Fancy605]

This is one of the reasons why I stick to wine these days IF I drink at all. I have found that my post college life style really doesn''t cater to drinking though. I have some friends who are still in college who when they go a week without drinking say, "Wow--I feel skinnier already" Well, of course they do, alcohol is ridiculously bad for your waist line.

I mostly drink good old H2O or water with Crystal light powder in it. I am addicted to raspberry lemonade flavoring. I drink milk with anything baked or on cereal and the VERY occasional sprite.

 

[LAJennifer]

Date: 7/21/2006 4:24:22 PM
Author: Mara
eleguin, it''s interesting because if people DO currently consume a lot of drinks like the ones listed above, just imagine how JUST cutting out drinks like that totally and drinking all water or tea or similar could change their calorie consumption! people could actually lose a fair amount of weight if they cut out about 500 calories of just drinks per day! insane to think about that but true.

Before I met my fiance - I was never what you would call a "drinker" but I would go out like once a week and have maybe one or two drinks (and I didn''t do this every week either). It was really just a social thing for me - you know - drinks with friends. My fiance doesn''t drink at all, so the first year we were together - I pretty much cut out the alcohol because we were together all the time. In that first year, I went from 103 lbs (when we met) to 92 lbs (exactly 1 year later). This was from doing absolutely nothing different except for eliminating alcohol consumption. Eleven pounds, on someone so small to begin with, is a pretty dramatic change. I can only imagine how much it would have been if I were average sized. Double, triple?

 

[princessv]

Ugh...I was about to get a frapp today at Starbucks and thought twice since that show. Who would have thought?! Although everytime I order something at Starbucks I get really full.