Before You Blame the Food, Look at What’s in Your Glass.

When focusing on lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and other lifestyle-related diseases, the conversation usually focuses on food. My recommendation is all about balance and portion control. Something that we should also ask is what are we drinking?

Many of us in Trinidad and Tobago are offered sugary beverages with our meals and snacks. The body is forced to process these soft drinks, sweetened juices, energy drinks, sweetened tea and flavoured drinks. This is important to focus on when we consider lifestyle diseases such as weight and blood sugar management.

Soft drinks are widely available and deeply embedded in our food culture. The good news is that we can still choose. If we make more mindful efforts to choose better beverages, it can drastically improve our health. The problem is that there is no nutritional value from sugar beverages, only sugar.

When I was a kid, between 9-12 years old I developed obesity and high blood sugars. Honestly majority of what contributed to that was soft drink consumption with every meal. It was traditional and also what was common. I had to make a conscious effort to focus more on herbal tea, water and fruit infused water.

If we sit down with our plate of macaroni pie, stew chicken and callaloo, we tend to add soft drink to our meal and significantly increase our sugar intake. The meal is balanced, but the drink is adding too much sugar. The truth is that the same applies for fruit drinks and sugary smoothies.

What we drink needs to be added to our meal calculations for balanced eating and drinking as a whole. My recommendation:

1)      Start with water: Water is calorie free and doesn’t add sugar to the diet. Making water our primary beverage is one of the simplest changes a person can make. The main issue with water intake is that some people might find water to be plain and boring. This leads to my next recommendation.

2)      Fruit infused water: A very useful alternative to flavoured water by slicing and adding cucumber, lemon, lime, pineapple, watermelon and other herbs to your water. The goal is to make the drink more enjoyable without adding sugar.

3)      Herbal tea: brewing ginger, peppermint, lemon grass or any herbal tea of preference can be another option to explore. I love unsweetened herbal teas or sweetened with a little honey.

4)      Smoothies: What we focus on at Didi’s Healthy Living Café is providing you with nutrient rich smoothies instead of calorie dense smoothies. This mean that there is a perfect blend of vegetables, fruits and other ingredients to add value to the drink.

Overall, small changes lead to big results. Nothing changes overnight, but looking at your daily beverage intake can be a game changer when it comes to your health and quality of life. My focus is simple: nutrition for prevention and better health. I help people identify the everyday food and beverage choices that may be contributing to diabetes, high blood pressure, weight challenges and other lifestyle-related conditions and replace them with practical, sustainable solutions.

Look at your plate. Look at your glass. Look at your habits. Your health is being shaped by them every day. As your Dr. Nutrition and Diet Therapy, I only want the best for your health.

By Dr. Didi, PhD Nutrition & Diet Therapy, Registered Dietitian & Nutritionist