Healthy Drinks for Diet: Green Tea for Mental Clarity

[Rhine720]

I have a soda drinking problem. Basically, all I want to do is a find a healthier thing to drink. Due to lack of sleep and exercise i feel like i might be losing mental clarity, so perhaps something that's sort of a "Brain drink"? Anything good? green tea maybe?

 

[DaveC426913]

I have a soda drinking problem. Basically, all I want to do is a find a healthier thing to drink. Due to lack of sleep and exercise i feel like i might be losing mental clarity, so perhaps something that's sort of a "Brain drink"? Anything good? green tea maybe?

You cannot use a drink to compensate for poor sleep and exercise habits. At least, not in the long term.

Get better sleep and exercise. Your body will thank you with many decades of health.

 

[Rhine720]

So how about a better drink in general? To replace soda with?

 

[Hepth]

Unsweetened iced tea. Learn to love it!

 

[Monique]

Tea, the best are the full-leave varieties. Websites like this: http://www.adagio.com/ make me happy

Soda is not only bad because of its sugar, but also because of its acids: you will destroy your body and your teeth by drinking it everyday.

 

[hamster143]

Beer!

 

[Jobrag]

If you are drinking sweet fizzy drinks and finding that a short time later you are feeling thirsty again have a diabetes check.

 

[Freddy_Turnip]

Red Bull and Vodka - keeps me alert for hours on end.

 

[xxChrisxx]

'Brain drink'.

Water frankly, not very interesting but the only thing your body cares about is being hydrated. (Mostly anyway)

I really should follow my own advice though as I'm massively addicted to caffeine, I suspect this is what is causing the feeling of losing the mental edge. Also Dave is right in that a good nights sleep and excercise also clear the mind pretty well.

Shame that finding the time, especially for sleep is so hard. The day needs to be a good 4 hours longer.

 

[Freddy_Turnip]

I went in the chinese shop and got some green tea that swells up when you add hot water - you can get 3 or 4 large cups with one spoonful - just keep topping it up with hot water. Also there's a ginseng drink like a sugar cube that dissolves.

 

[Topher925]

Whats wrong with just plain old water?

 

[Dadface]

I had to cut down on my alcohol intake and I found Schloer,a grape juice.I drink it diluted and it makes a good alternative to wine and possibly to soda.Give it a try.

 

[Moonbear]

Tea and coffee will still give you the caffeine while you control the amount of sugar. Not exactly healthy, but often it's more the caffeine you'll miss than the sugar if you just switch to water.

The other thing I'll do to cut back on soda (not eliminate it) is to mix club soda or tonic water half and half with a fruit juice. Now, fruit juices can be just as sugary, so not really a diet drink, but at least if you choose carefully, they have vitamins too. I don't usually like plain fruit juice because it tastes TOO sweet to me, but mixing it with something bitter like tonic water seems to satisfy my taste for bubbles.

I would drink more water if I could get water that wasn't chillled! I can't stand drinking ice cold water. At home, it's not a problem, I can just get it tepid from the tap and am happy, but at work, the tap water tastes odd and they do have a water dispenser in the soda machine, but it's ice cold, and all the bottled water is chilled, and the water fountains are refrigerated. Bleck! Even my boyfriend keeps his water in the fridge (his tap water is sometimes rusty, so he filters it and puts the whole container in the fridge). I end up pouring a full glass when I'm not thirsty just so I can let it sit out on the counter to drink later when it's room temperature (and he got yelled at when he walked in and drank MY glass of water and didn't understand why I was upset when there was plenty more water in the fridge ).

 

[Proton Soup]

I have a soda drinking problem. Basically, all I want to do is a find a healthier thing to drink. Due to lack of sleep and exercise i feel like i might be losing mental clarity, so perhaps something that's sort of a "Brain drink"? Anything good? green tea maybe?

put a saucer of milk on the floor. get into pushup position above the saucer. lower your face to the saucer, take a sip of milk, and push up. when you finish a saucer, that is one set. do enough sets to finish one quart of milk in a day (low fat if you like). as you become more advanced, use bigger saucers.

run one mile. drink a cup of milk. repeat as needed.

do squats or deadlifts. drink a pint of milk.

etc. be creative, make your own variations on the theme.

 

[xxChrisxx]

What a completely [STRIKE]ridiculous[/STRIKE] edit: curious idea. Why not just do full workout THEN drink the milk?

Why milk btw? Possibly the most sickly drink on the planet.

 

[DaveC426913]

What a completely [STRIKE]ridiculous[/STRIKE] edit: curious idea. Why not just do full workout THEN drink the milk?

This should be obvious.

To make a game out of it., So it's not such a grind.


Why milk btw? Possibly the most sickly drink on the planet.[/QUOTE]
I q

 

[DaveC426913]

What a completely [STRIKE]ridiculous[/STRIKE] edit: curious idea. Why not just do full workout THEN drink the milk?

This should be obvious. To make a game out of it. So it's not such a grind.

 

[xxChrisxx]

This should be obvious. To make a game out of it., So it's not such a grind.

It's just milk seems a very odd choice as a motivational incentive. Granted I am biased in that I find milk to be a vomit inducing drink even when completely stationary. I just find that during excercise cool (not cold) water is by far the best thing.

What I am trying to ask is, is there any denefit to driking milk befor/during/after excercise over water?

 

[Moonbear]

What a completely [STRIKE]ridiculous[/STRIKE] edit: curious idea. Why not just do full workout THEN drink the milk?

Why milk btw? Possibly the most sickly drink on the planet.

I just LOVE milk. But, I think the joke was more like putting down a saucer of milk for a cat than a serious suggestion (or maybe you already knew that and I just missed that you were joking back...humor seems to be backfiring all over the place today).

 

[Proton Soup]

It's just milk seems a very odd choice as a motivational incentive. Granted I am biased in that I find milk to be a vomit inducing drink even when completely stationary. I just find that during excercise cool (not cold) water is by far the best thing.

actually, I'm not making a joke. add some chocolate syrup if you like.

Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2006 Feb;16(1):78-91.Links
Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid.
Karp JR, Johnston JD, Tecklenburg S, Mickleborough TD, Fly AD, Stager JM.

Dept of Kinesiology and Applied Health Science, Human Performance Laboratory, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, USA.

Nine male, endurance-trained cyclists performed an interval workout followed by 4 h of recovery, and a subsequent endurance trial to exhaustion at 70% VO2max, on three separate days. Immediately following the first exercise bout and 2 h of recovery, subjects drank isovolumic amounts of chocolate milk, fluid replacement drink (FR), or carbohydrate replacement drink (CR), in a single-blind, randomized design. Carbohydrate content was equivalent for chocolate milk and CR. Time to exhaustion (TTE), average heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and total work (WT) for the endurance exercise were compared between trials. TTE and WT were significantly greater for chocolate milk and FR trials compared to CR trial. The results of this study suggest that chocolate milk is an effective recovery aid between two exhausting exercise bouts.

Improved endurance capacity following chocolate milk consumption compared with 2 commercially available sport drinks.
Thomas K, Morris P, Stevenson E.
Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2009 Feb;34(1):78-82.
PMID: 19234590

This study examined the effects of 3 recovery drinks on endurance performance following glycogen-depleting exercise. Nine trained male cyclists performed 3 experimental trials, in a randomized counter-balanced order, consisting of a glycogen-depleting trial, a 4-h recovery period, and a cycle to exhaustion at 70% power at maximal oxygen uptake. At 0 and 2 h into the recovery period, participants consumed chocolate milk (CM), a carbohydrate replacement drink (CR), or a fluid replacement drink (FR). Participants cycled 51% and 43% longer after ingesting CM (32 +/- 11 min) than after ingesting CR (21 +/- 8 min) or FR (23 +/- 8 min). CM is an effective recovery aid after prolonged endurance exercise for subsequent exercise at low-moderate intensities.


Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2009 Dec;34(6):1017-22.
Acute effects of chocolate milk and a commercial recovery beverage on postexercise recovery indices and endurance cycling performance.

Pritchett K, Bishop P, Pritchett R, Green M, Katica C.

Department of Health, Human Performance, and Nutrition, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926, USA.

To maximize training quality, athletes have sought nutritional supplements that optimize recovery. This study compared chocolate milk (CHOC) with a carbohydrate replacement beverage (CRB) as a recovery aid after intense exercise, regarding performance and muscle damage markers in trained cyclists. Ten regional-level cyclists and triathletes (maximal oxygen uptake 55.2 +/- 7.2 mL.kg-1.min-1) completed a high-intensity intermittent exercise protocol, then 15-18 h later performed a performance trial at 85% of maximal oxygen uptake to exhaustion. Participants consumed 1.0 g carbohydrate.kg-1.h-1 of a randomly assigned isocaloric beverage (CHOC or CRB) after the first high-intensity intermittent exercise session. The same protocol was repeated 1 week later with the other beverage. A 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed no significant difference (p = 0.91) between trials for time to exhaustion at 85% of maximal oxygen uptake (CHOC 13 +/- 10.2 min, CRB 13.5 +/- 8.9 min). The change in creatine kinase (CK) was significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the CRB trial than in the CHOC trial (increase CHOC 27.9 +/- 134.8 U.L-1, CRB 211.9 +/- 192.5 U.L-1), with differences not significant for CK levels before the second exercise session (CHOC 394.8 +/- 166.1 U.L-1, CRB 489.1 +/- 264.4 U.L-1) between the 2 trials. These findings indicate no difference between CHOC and this commercial beverage as potential recovery aids for cyclists between intense workouts.

 

[Proton Soup]

well, to clarify, I'm serious about milk as an exercise drink, even though i might present it in not so serious a way. would kill two birds with one stone for the poster, is all. ;)

 

[Moonbear]

actually, I'm not making a joke. add some chocolate syrup if you like.

None of that said anything about putting the milk in a saucer to lap up each time you do a push up. That's the part I took as a joke.

Edit: You added your other post after I wrote this and before I hit send.

 

[xxChrisxx]

well, to clarify, I'm serious about milk as an exercise drink, even though i might present it in not so serious a way. would kill two birds with one stone for the poster, is all. ;)

That's interesting that milk gave a better performance than dedicated sports drink.

You still couldn't catch me drinking the stuff

 

[Rhine720]

I'm not looking for something very diety so to say. Like I'm not interested in losing wait (I'm far too skinny). My problem is a caffiene addiction. I drink a lot of soda. MY friend recently suggested i could get diabetes from the amount I drink, and I'm kinda scared about that. ( i know this is different then my original post..) So is there a way to feed the addiction? Or should I not worry?

 

[DaveC426913]

My problem is a caffiene addiction. I drink a lot of soda. MY friend recently suggested i could get diabetes from the amount I drink, and I'm kinda scared about that. ( i know this is different then my original post..) So is there a way to feed the addiction? Or should I not worry?

I am a cola addict and I am diabetic. I have weeded out the bad stuff (sugar, caffeine) but I still like my cola. So I buy diet caffeine-free cola.

Yeah yeah, I'll beat y'all to the usual responses:
- ew how can you drink diet? it has an awful aftertaste
- ew cola is still bad for you even without sugar or caffeine
- ew without the sugar or caffeine, you're just drinking brown water, why bother?
Heard em all.

BTW, there is less caffeine in a can of cola than in a cup of coffee or tea, so don't let anyone give you a hard time about "all the caffeine" in cola...

 

[Proton Soup]

i don't think caffeine has been shown to be all that dangerous in studies, maybe even positive in moderate amounts.

sugar is more of a calorie balance thing. that is, it's not something to concern an olympic swimmer. but maybe more of a concern to people that don't exercise at all.

 

[Rhine720]

So, DaveC, and Proton Soup, say I moderate my self to say, a single 2 liter a day, I shouldn't have to worry...And sodas are a lot less likely to be the cause of getting diabetes?

 

[DaveC426913]

So, DaveC, and Proton Soup, say I moderate my self to say, a single 2 liter a day, I shouldn't have to worry...And sodas are a lot less likely to be the cause of getting diabetes?

2L a day is 830 calories. More than 40% of your entire daily recommended calorie intake.

Those are facts we can provide. Advice is another matter. Please, do not take our word for how much is OK. We can offer alternatives because that's what you asked for, but it is your body, your health. You must decide what risks you are willing to take, and what the cost is.

 

[Proton Soup]

yeah, that's a lot of calories from just sugar, with not much additional nutrients (a.k.a. "empty calories"). for Michael Phelps, it would be no big deal. but for an inactive person, it is.

 

[Monique]

Two liters a day? That's probably more than what I drink in a year. The acids in soda corrode the enamel on your teeth, you should ask your dentist about the condition of your teeth during your next visit.

 

[xxChrisxx]

- ew how can you drink diet? it has an awful aftertaste

All 4 of my grandparents were/are diabetic, so my family has only ever bought diet when I was younger. I prefer it to full fat to this day, I don't see why people bash it.

I get the it's brown fizzy water too.

 

[DaveC426913]

All 4 of my grandparents were/are diabetic, so my family has only ever bought diet when I was younger. I prefer it to full fat to this day, I don't see why people bash it.

OK, well...

it does taste yucky...

I've been drinking it for a decade, and I mostly don't notice it.

But my choices are:
1] Drink diet cola.
2] Don't drink cola.
I choose 1].