Beverage Nutrition: Pour Better or Pour Worse?

The Nutrition Action Healthletter asked this important, albeit trite question in its June 2006 letter, and I have to say that I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. With Americans mindlessly drinking 21% of their daily calories (thanks to our capitalist friends at Coca Cola and Starbucks), one can’t help but be obsessed with the liquid Big Macs that tempt us 24/7, from the moment that saturated-fat-filled latte energizes our system to the 2am crash-out after a long night of Beer Pong.  Aside from what our mothers told us – to drink eight glasses of water a day and that drinking milk helps build strong bones – we have very little information about what we should drink, and even less about how to navigate through our many drink options.  Personally, I would be perfectly happy to leave behind the enormous world of beverages and settle for good-old H2O and a daily cup of coffee, but our choices just aren’t that simple anymore.  With that in mind, the information and advice that follows is an attempt to make sense of all of the options, in hopes of carving out some semblance of a healthy relationship to beverages.

Let us begin with caffeine, the only stimulant that it’s cool to be addicted to.  In the following days I’ll also touch on specialty coffee drinks (in other words, lattes, Java Chip Frappuccinos, etc.), but since caffeine spans beyond just coffee, it will be more simple to address caffeine’s merits alone.

Tea vs. Coffee: Let the battle begin!  When I order a straight-up triple espresso from my local barista, nine times out the person behind me says “you’re going to be up all night!”  Thanks, it’s 9 am and I don’t think these 230 mg. of caffeine are going to keep me up as long as your Venti drip coffee would (which packs around 415 mg.).  I say this not only to expose my own biases (something no “real expert” would do!), but also to point out the importance of serving size.  

• Espresso has garnered a bad caffeine rap.  In reality, because espresso is brewed so quickly, less caffeine (and more flavor!) is brewed into the cup.  As long as espresso drinkers restrict their intake to two or three shots per day, their caffeine intake will remain lower than that of a person who has 1-2 cups of drip coffee every day.  Espresso only becomes a poor drink choice when it comes with lots of whole milk and whipped cream.
• While a 16 oz. Rockstar is loaded with caffeine, just two cups of coffee (or a Starbucks Grande) far exceeds its energy drink opponents in caffeine content.
• A cup of black tea with made with two tea bags rivals drip coffee in caffeine content.
• If you’re looking for an energy jolt, restrict your caffeine intake to 300-400 mg per day.  
• For more information about how your favorite caffeinated-beverages stack up, check out Energy Fiend.

With that said, I would like to add one more disclaimer: the caffeine found in coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. have slightly different chemical compounds, and therefore impact people in different ways.  This is why some people can tolerate large amounts of a particular tea or coffee, but are sensitive to others.  This means that as well as serving size, it’s important for you to know what kinds of caffeine impact you negatively so that you can avoid them.  As well, energy drink manufacturers throw in other ingredients that work like or with caffeine.  Public Health “experts” and statisticians haven’t done much research on these ingredients (which is why they are still unregulated in energy drinks), but preliminary info indicates that they might have an impact on how our bodies process these super-caffeine sodas.

Next on “Pour Better or Pour Worse” . . . How to Survive in Latte-Land!

Originally posted on Jun 25, 2007