What beverages have the lowest impact on your BS and which ones have the highest?
Water is naturally the lowest with 0 impact and is meant to irrigate and flush your system. Having the majority of your fluid intake plain water will actively contribute to lower BS. If your teeth aren't sensitive, drink ice cold water as much as possible because your body burns calories heating up the water before distribution. Small methods add up over time.
Fruit "beverages" and "punches" like Minute Maid, Sunny D, and Fruitopia are horrible concoctions of about 10% fruit juice and 90% filler chemicals, including tons of sugar. Not only do they provide drastic spikes but they have far less nutrition to them than a serving of Tropicana 100% orange juice or freshly squeezed fruit juice. They often contain more sugar per serving than soda pop.
But see below for juice.
Commercially bottled milk beverages, milkshakes, smoothies, etc., often contain more added sugar than anything.
Regular soda pop of course, best termed "liquid candy" with absolutely no nutritional value, not even recommended for non-diabetics. I live by the mantra "Pop is Poison."
Alcohol also boosts your BG, and 1 oz of it contains about 200 calories. Mixers are especially bad with the added milk, juice, or sweet liquids blended with the booze. But if you have a small sip of red wine every now and then the flavonoids and antioxidants are great for you.
Black coffee and herb teas are best for caffeine. I wouldn't recommend diet pop or Coke Zero much because you can develop an addiction for it as much as regular pop, to the point where drinking tons of it may not increase BG, but your body eventually "thinks" all that artificial chemical you've substituted is real sugar and metabolizes it into fat if you don't exercise.
Aspartame also metabolizes into the same chemical compounds as formaldehyde, so it stays in your system a very long time in large quantities. A friend had a sudden brain aneurysm from drinking large 2 L bottles of Diet Coke regularly.
And a question about unsweetened fruit juice - seeing that fruits contain natural sugar, how much is an adequate serving of unsweetened fruit juice?
"Adequate" servings depends entirely on you and your response to drinks and food. How quickly your system responds to sugars differs with the next person. Try drinking 1 serving of juice and measure your reaction to it, that can help you gauge how much is safe for next time. Usually 1/2 cup is listed as 1 serving. Juice contains no fiber, even "lots of pulp" orange juice doesn't have the fiber impact that eating a small orange would. Best to eat fruit to obtain your juices.
As far as treating yourself goes, I would make your own milkshakes or smoothies at home, so you can determine exactly how much fresh juice or ice cream is going into the drink. Make chocolate milk by blending unsweetened cocoa powder with a "safe" serving of warm milk.
Here is one of my favourite recipes for cocoa mix I found online, tasty.
2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1/2 cup lower-fat powdered nondairy creamer
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
10 packets Equal® sweetener or 1 tablespoon Equal® for Recipes
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1. For cocoa mix, stir together milk powder, nondairy creamer, cocoa powder, Equal® and, if desired, cinnamon. Cover and store in an airtight container.
2. For each serving, in a heat-proof mug add 3/4 cup boiling water to 1/3 cup cocoa mix; stir to dissolve.
Makes 2 2/3 cups mix (enough for 8 six-ounce servings).
Nutrition Information Per Serving: Calories: 104, Protein: 8 g, Carbohydrates: 17 g, Fat: 2 g, Cholesterol: 3 mg, Sodium: 93 mg.
Food Exchanges:1 Milk
Mocha Cocoa Mix:
For a delicious mocha-flavored variation of Instant Cocoa Mix, prepare as directed, except decrease the cocoa powder to 1/3 cup and add 1/4 cup instant coffee crystals.
But above all, water. Get used to water and you'll live very long and healthy. Squeeze half a lemon into a jug of filtered water and you're set. Lemon water's astringent taste, if drunk for long periods, has also been proven to develop a distaste for the cloying sweetness of pop. Perrier and some artficially sweetened flavoured water is good for variety, but see above for artificial sweeteners.
All of these suggestions apply equally to non-diabetics, simply because absolutely no person requires added sugar intake from beverages to be healthy when natural sugars can be acquired from food. So tell your friends too!
