Bottled Drink Comparison

 
 
Many people do not think of a bottled drink as having a lot of calories, but the truth is that drinks can be high in calories.  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't treat yourself to a bottled drink now and again... but a few tips can help you to make better decisions about how often to have a bottled drink, and which drink to choose. 
 
  • Take a look at the label to find out what's in your drink!  We have already looked at the labels of some popular drinks, and printed the information below.

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  • Pay attention to the number of servings in one bottle or can.  If a drink label says that it contains two servings, then you have to double everything you see on the label if you drink the whole bottle.  For example, if the bottle says that there are two servings, and that one serving contains 100 calories, the whole bottle contains 200 calories. 

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  • You may want to think of a drink as a snack that contains calories.  To help you visualize the amount of calories you are drinking with each beverage, we have posted an example of a food that contains the same amount of calories as the beverage.  For example, if you look at the Sunny Delight column, you can see that if you drink a bottle of that beverage, you are consuming 300 calories.  Three small brownies with nuts and frosting contain 300 calories!

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  • We found that of the drinks we compared, Sunny Delight and Frutopia were the highest in calories, sugar and sodium.

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  • In the comparison table below, we have highlighted the healthy amounts of ingredients in green, the least healthy amounts of ingredients in red for easy comparison.

 
 
Lipton Iced Tea (raspberry flavor)
Lipton Iced Tea 
(no flavoring) 
Regular Snapple
Diet Snapple 
Regular Pepsi 
Diet Pepsi
Total servings
2 servings
2 servings
2 servings
2 servings
2.5 servings
2.5 servings
Total calories
220 cals
0 cals
220 cals 
40 cals 
250 cals 
0 cals 
Calories equal to…
4 oatmeal raisin cookies (226 cals)
No calories!
4 oatmeal raisin cookies (226 cals)
Packet of jelly (38 cals)
4 ½ Tablespoons jam (243 cals)
No calories!
Total sugar
52 g
0 g
54 g
8 g
67.5 g
0 g
Total sodium (salt)
10 mg
10 mg
20 mg
20 mg
62.5 mg
62.5 mg
Total potassium
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total vitamin C
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total cost
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$1.09
$1.09

 
 
Sunny Delight 
Crystal Light
Frutopia
Orange Juice
Gatorade
Total servings
2.5 servings
2 servings
2.5 servings
2 servings
2.5 servings
Total calories
300 cals
10 cals
300 cals
220 cals
125 cals
Calories equal to…
3 small brownies with nuts & frosting (303 cals)
2 stalks of celery (12 cals)
3 small brownies with nuts, frosting (303 cals)
4 oatmeal raisin cookies (226 cals)
Apple crisp (127 cals)
Total sugar
75 g
0 g
75 g
48 g
35 g
Total sodium (salt)
275 mg
40 mg 
200 mg
50 mg
275 mg
Total potassium
0
0
0
960 mg
75 mg
Total vitamin C
20%
0
100%
100%
0
Total cost
$0.99
$0.99
$0.99
$1.09
$1.79

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