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Researchers rank beverages
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 The drinks listed above are ranked from bottom to top, based on their calories, nutrients, health effects, and how much is
practical to consume.
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Dietary surveys show that drinks comprise about 20 percent of the calories in the average American diet, but a healthier proportion
would be about 10 percent. To help meet that goal, Barry Popkin, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, assembled a panel of top nutrition researchers from five major medical institutions,
including Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities, to create this beverage guidance system
. We’ve slightly adapted it, as noted below.
The researchers ranked drink choices based on a combination of factors: calories, nutrients, health effects, and how much
is practical to drink. Note that you don’t need fluids to supply calories or nutrients, so a healthy diet could rely on water
alone. And none of the categories are requirements--you can be perfectly healthy without drinking any coffee or tea, for example.
A serving equals 8 ounces.
- Water: Up to nine servings for women, 13 for men.
(Those maximums assume you drink no other fluid that day.) - Tea and coffee: Up to three servings of coffee or eight of tea. Without sugar and cream, coffee and black or green teas are calorie-free sources of apparently disease-fighting substances.
Coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and possibly Parkinson’s disease. Tea may protect against cancer,
heart disease, and perhaps osteoporosis. The panel made no recommendation on herbal teas.
The panel concluded that drinking up to four cups of coffee poses no health risk for most people. But some coffees contain unusually large amounts of caffeine, so to be safe, we recommend no more than three cups a day. Because of an increased risk of miscarriage, pregnant women should limit their intake to one or two cups a day.
You can safely drink larger amounts of tea because conventional types are relatively low in caffeine and most herbal varieties contain none. But we advise moderating your intake of instant and bottled teas, since recent evidence
suggests that the concentrated fluoride in some of these could harm the joints over time. - Skim or low-fat milk and unsweetened fortified soy drinks: Up to two servings. These provide calcium, protein, and other nutrients and help supply the recommended three daily servings of dairy or calcium-fortified
soy.
- Diet drinks: Up to four servings. These add no calories, and consuming up to four servings a day appears to be safe. However, artificially sweetened drinks
may contribute to a taste for sugary foods.
- Fruit juices, whole milk, and sports drinks: Up to one serving. These exact a high-calorie price for their nutrients. Unlike whole fruit, juice doesn’t contain fiber or satisfy hunger.
Commercial vegetable juices generally supply fewer calories but lots of sodium. A cup of whole milk has nearly twice the calories
of skim milk plus 8 grams of fat, half of it saturated. The electrolytes and calories in sports drinks aren’t useful unless
you exercise strenuously for more than an hour.
- Soft drinks and juice drinks: Up to one serving. These contain lots of calories and virtually no nutrients.
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