Watching Your Weight? Check Out the Calorie Content of Your Favourite Drinks

The Calorie Content of Your Favourite Drinks May Surprise You

Whether you’re trying to lose weight, or simply be more healthy, you can’t avoid paying attention to calories. Most people carefully watch their calorie intake with food, but forget to watch their calorie intake from drinks. This is essential though because calories in drinks can really add up. Next time you reach for your fourth cup of tea with whole milk and two sugars have a think about the calorie content. Start watching the calorie content of drinks as well as food, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to shift those extra pounds!

If you’re in the office, it’s really easy to sit and have tea and coffee all day. If you’re out and about, you might be tempted to pick up a soda. Calorie heavy drinks are fine in moderation, but it’s important to be aware of those sneaky calories that might be prohibiting your weight loss. However, for every unhealthy drink, there’s a healthier alternative. Let us tell you a little more about the calorie content of your favourite drinks, and give you alternatives to go for instead.

Tea

Ahh, tea. A great British staple. Unfortunately, though, tea can be a source of calories without you even realising. If you’re having a cup with whole milk and one sugar, that comes to around 40-50 calories. If you’re having 4 cups of tea a day, that’s 200 calories just in tea! For a healthier alternative, use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, or switch to green tea. Green tea is rich in antioxidants and doesn’t need milk, so is automatically lower in calories. Use your Billi tap, and you can have a cup of green tea in a matter of seconds. Perfect for that warm pick me up in the mornings, and close to no calories.

Coffee

The calorie content in coffee varies depending on the type of coffee you choose. Mochas, Cappuccinos and Lattes have the highest calorie content. This is due to the fact that they have the highest milk content. They can also sometimes have a cinnamon or chocolate dusting on top if you get it from a coffee shop. Even more sneaky calories! A tall whole milk latte from Starbucks has around 200 calories in, which is 10% of a woman’s daily calorie intake in one coffee! Black coffee is the most sensible alternative. Less milk = fewer calories, so go for black coffee or dairy alternatives. Soya and Almond milk both have a lower calorie content than whole milk.

Smoothies

Smoothies are great as one of your 5 a day. They are packed full of fruit and vegetables. However, pre-packaged smoothies from the supermarket can also be very high in sugar, and therefore high in calories. Innocent smoothies can contain up to 150 calories, and Naked smoothies can have up to a whopping 350. Fruit is naturally high in sugar, so automatically the calorie content of smoothies is high. But, there are ways to make your smoothies even healthier. Instead of using sweetened fruit juice or sweetened protein powder as well as your fruit and veg, use water or soya milk. Alongside these base fluids and fruit and veg, try adding natural powders. These can include spirulina, green tea powder, chia seeds or hemp seeds.

Squash/Cordial

Out of this list, fruit squash has the lowest calorie content. This is because it is predominantly water. If you pick your squash or cordial wisely and go for one with low sugar content, it will also be low in calories. Our favourite cordial has to be elderflower, but this is unfortunately quite sweet. There are around 30 calories in a glass of elderflower cordial. Alternatively, there are only about 5 calories in a glass of apple squash. With chilled and sparkling water on demand from your Billi tap, a low calorie, refreshing glass of squash is quick and easy.

Ultimately, the higher the water content and the lower the sugar or dairy content, the fewer calories the drink will have. For a truly low-calorie drink, water is the obvious choice. It doesn’t have to be boring though, sparkling water can give it a bit of fizz! Failing that, if you’re really craving something other than water, green tea or squash/cordial is the next logical choice. Low in sugar, and more exciting than water.