Meat(less) Monday: Recipes, nutrition tips and advice on food your body will thank you for. OK, maybe not completely meatless, but healthy, for sure. 

By: Shirley De Leon

Keep track of the foods you eat, but don’t forget that drinks have calories, too.

Some drinks don’t offer enough essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals, so you end up taking in empty calories.

Drinking beverages with added sugar and little nutritional value can make weight loss a struggle. It’s worse than eating high-fat, carb-laced foods, because it’s easier to lose track of caloric intake when consuming a ton of liquids than when eating a large portion of solid foods.

The words, natural, organic and calcium-fortified, on drink labels are meant to divert consumers’ attention away from the added sugar found in them (In case it wasn’t clear, excess sugar is the enemy of weight loss.).

Even so-called healthy drinks like fruit juices and smoothies may contain as much as half of the daily-recommended intake of sugar in just 2 cups. Adults should consume no more than 90 grams of sugar daily.

It may also be best to lay off cow’s milk as sugar usually replaces any fat extracted from milk.

Here are simple swaps for drinks typically included in a diet. Avoid consuming more than one 8 oz. serving of each, if at all.

Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk.