The Unhealthiest Drinks in America 2009

Americans have a drinking problem. We simply consume too much nutrient-empty, calorie-full liquid. Blame food marketers for the ever-expanding serving vessels, chock-full of cheap sugar substitutes, a variety of hard-to-pronounce chemicals, and tons of fat.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. It turns out, those liquid calories are the easiest kind to cut. And a recent study from Johns Hopkins University found that people who cut liquid calories from their diets lose more weight, and keep it off longer, than people who cut food calories. In fact, cutting those calories in half could mean you could drop almost 23 1/2 pounds in one year!

Two years ago, Eat This, Not That exposed the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America. The list was bad in the scary, jaw-dropping sense: Belt-busting beverages that tipped the scales at over 1,000 (and sometimes, 2,000) calories; hundreds of grams of blood glucose-spiking sugar, and a slew of unnatural and exotic-sounding additives.

The good news is that many of these beverages have since disappeared from menus and grocery aisle shelves. The bad news, of course, is that even worse monster-malts and Franken-shakes have popped up in their place. That’s why, in our all-new book, Eat This, Not That!: The Best (and Worst!) Foods in America, we’ve updated our list of the absolute worst drinks to avoid, and offered sensible alternatives, so you can still enjoy your meals and beverages, but lose weight anyway.

10. WORST FUNCTIONAL BEVERAGE

Snapple Tropical Mango Antioxidant Water (20-ounce bottle)

• 150 calories
• 0 g fat
• 30 g sugars

Here’s the thing about sugar: It has only one function, and that is to make you fat. Of course, bottlers of the so-called functional beverages try to hide this fact behind a flurry of healthy buzz-terms, such as antioxidants (read about the 18 worst packaged food lies here). Too bad two out of three antioxidants in this bottle are actually vitamins A and E, both of which are fat soluble, making them difficult to absorb in a fat-free beverage. If you want flavored water, just make sure it comes without calories. If it’s more vitamins you seek, increase your fresh fruit intake or pop a multivitamin.

Drink This Instead:

Hint Mango Grapefruit (16-ounce bottle)

• 0 calories
• 0 g fat
• 0 g sugars

9. WORST ENERGY DRINK

Rockstar Original (16-ounce can)

• 280 calories
• 0 g fat
• 62 g sugars

Americans spent $4.2 billion on high-octane elixirs in 2008. Even with dozens of brands found in the cooler, Rockstar stands out as the most sugar-loaded of the various and sundry energy drinks. Compared with its closest competitor, it has 20 extra calories, which is just enough to make it the worst possible choice for instant energy. And with research on the long-term effects of taurine and guarana still cloudy, you’re better off getting your buzz from coffee, a proven source of antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients. But if you must grab a can, you can’t get better than the low-carb concoction below.

Drink This Instead:

Monster Lo-Carb Energy (16-ounce can)

• 20 calories
• 0 g fat
• 6 g sugars