Is it safe to drink non-sugary drinks (like coke zero) while on a diet? Or do the artificial sweeteners just make you fat in some sneaky way?
In: Chemistry
To add, any food that is 5 calories or less is legally allowed to be labeled “zero calorie”, all the way down to the nutrition label. Tic-Tacs are “zero calorie” even though they’re just compressed sugar tablets. Even their shell is made of sugar. So zero calorie typically never is.
If you want some low calorie alternatives, consider water, tea, and coffee.
No one drinks water anymore. When did that get boring? When did that no longer quench thirst? Why does everything have to be exciting? It gets to the point where you don’t even taste that flavorful beverage anymore – it has replaced water, and thus become water.
Black coffee is 2 calories per serving. DON’T drink that shit they sell at the grocery store, and the stuff you can grind yourself there is EVEN WORSE. I won’t get into it, but what I do recommend is mail order coffee services. Typically you can buy a standard 12oz bag, at a competitive price – even if they charge you shipping, and have it arrive on a schedule. What’s most important is the roasting date, which you never see in the store. Coffee is only fresh for about a week before it’s dead and flavorless brown bean water. Getting your coffee fresh is going to change your life. Coffees from dry climates are more acidic, so perhaps you’ll want to steer away from Ethiopia. Aim for more tropical climates. You’ll taste cherries, dates, stone fruits, citrus, caramel, and cocoa (think dark chocolate that’s slightly bitter, but in a good way). If you’ve been drinking Denny’s your whole life, if you’ve never had coffee without cream or sugar (salt is better), there is a whole world out there for you. Buy whole bean, and grind it yourself.
Tea is also 2 calories per serving. Again, skip the Colonel Lipton – A) That guy spent too much time in the Sri Lanken heat, and B) grocery store tea is some of the lowest quality on the market. Go to a specialty dealer or shop online. Earl Grey or English Breakfast are both fine, just buy whole leaf, skip the tea basket, and pour through a strainer. My favorite is Lapsang Souchong, a smoked tea leaf that otherwise tastes like scotch whiskey. The Chinese are big on green teas and they steep their leaves for seconds rather than minutes – that’s how they get multiple cups out of a single serving of leaves. It also makes the tea far more subtle, because an American style steep of 2-4 minutes lands you with grass-tasting water.
Of course, you can add whole milk, a tablespoon is 15 calories. Whole milk is only 3.75% fat. The fat content, though, isn’t the big deal, it’s the sugar content. Reduced fat milks reduce the water content of the milk as a consequence, and concentrate the sugars. So skim milk is basically sugar water. Heavy cream is 36% fat, by comparison.
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