Your First Habit: Getting Rid of Ultra-Processed Drinks
First off, congrats on making it through to the end of the first week! Buckle up because we are going to be starting our first habit tomorrow: replacing our drinks. Judging by the sheer number of canned and bottled beverage options at the grocery store, this is going to be a challenging one for many of you. Don’t worry, I promise you’re not going to be confined to a life of boring drinks.
We’re going to go over the rules first and then we’ll go into some of the nuances of each category.
Always
No limits, drink what you please
- Water (included sparkling with natural flavors)
- Coffee
- Tea
- Milk
- 100% Fruit and/or Vegetable Juice
- Other drinks using only 40FRESH Always ingredients
@Home
Use @Home ingredients in moderation
- Drinks you make using only 40FRESH Always and @Home ingredients
- Tea with honey
- Coffee with sugar
Limited
Limited quantities per week
- Fermented alcoholic drinks
- Beer
- Wine
- Cider
Nope
Avoid at all costs
- Drinks with sweeteners, flavorings, or preservatives
- Soda
- Energy & sports drinks
- Juice
- Tea
- Kombucha
- Dairy drinks
- Non-dairy milks
- Meal replacement shakes
- Alcoholic seltzers
- Hard alcohol
Today’s Checklist
If you’re following along with the 40FRESH Challenge, here’s your homework for today:
Read this post
Learn the 40FRESH Rules for drinks
Create a drinks menu
Don’t forget to journal
40FRESH Always Fine Print
Okay, now that we have the basic rules down, let’s get into the nuances.
Water
You won’t be surprised to find that pure water, both spring and tap, is considered 40FRESH friendly. Same goes for mineral water. Where things get a little bit more complicated is when we get to sparkling waters. You may recall from day 3 that flavored waters like LaCroix are considered group 4. The reason for this has to do with the natural flavors that are added to these drinks.
You might be wondering why something as innocuous sounding as “natural flavors” would put any food, much less sparkling water, in the worst food category. Natural flavors do have a specific purpose–they are engineered to make food more appealing and get you to consume more> However, is it really a bad thing if people consume more water? We don’t think so, which is why sparkling water with natural flavors is our only allowed exception to this rule.
There are some sparkling waters (like most flavors of Spindrift) that only contain carbonated water and fresh fruit juice and do not contain any preservatives, additives, or sweeteners. These are also considered 40FRESH Always.
Coffee & Tea
I know there’s a few of you out there that drink these straight up, but most of us mere mortals like to add a bit more into our drinks. As long as the only thing you’re adding is milk, go ahead and drink up! You’re also welcome
As for additives that would put your drink into the 40FRESH Nope category, it’s pretty much everything else that you find at the coffee shop: flavors, toppings, add-ins, and artificial sweeteners. If you’re ordering out at a coffee shop and you want to add sugar, you should add it yourself so you can moderate your sugar intake.
100% Fruit & Vegetable Juice
Yup, you read that correctly! If the juice you’re drinking is 100% from fruit or vegetables with no added sweeteners, flavoring, or preservative (natural or artificial), it’s fair game. Personally, I love juice, so I invested in an Omega Masticating Juicer. It does take some time and cleanup, but it will spare you from the exorbitant costs of fresh juices, which can sometimes be over $10 per bottle!
Other Drinks
40FRESH @Home
When you’re making drinks at home, feel free to add ingredients from the 40FRESH Always category to your drinks. However, this is not an invitation to dump a whole cup of sugar into every drink you pour. The primary purpose of @Home ingredients is to give you the opportunity to use these ingredients (in small amounts) to the food you’re preparing to give it additional flavor. Be judicious in how much you use these ingredients and how often you use them.
40FRESH Limited
All the drinks in this category are alcoholic. As such, the 40FRESH Limited rules are slightly different from the Limited rules for food. From a health perspective, we would advise not drinking any alcohol, that just isn’t realistic for many people. Our advice for drinks in this category is similar to the CDC: keep your total servings under 7 per week and never more than 3 in a single day. If you are pregnant, may become pregnant, under 21, or recovering from an alcohol use disorder, we do not recommend you drink anything from the Limited category.
40FRESH Nope
A lot of what you find lining the drink aisles in grocery stores falls into this category. As the category says, these are foods to be avoided at all costs. The ideal number of servings per week from this category is zero. That’s not always compatible with our lives, but you should certainly aim to choose healthier options when they are available. If you do make the choice to eat off the 40FRESH Nope list, don’t forget to recite your health mantra:
I care about my health and I make healthy choices. This is not a healthy choice, but I will make better choices in the future.
And remember: NEVER MISS TWICE.
Create Yourself a Drinks Menu
Now that you know the 40FRESH Rules for drinks, go ahead and open up your food journal. For every drink you have that falls into the 40FRESH Nope category, see if you can jot down some alternatives you can replace them with. Make a note of any ingredients you might need because tomorrow you’ll be starting your first habit.
I know it’s tedious, but keep that food journal going. It is going to start acting like an accountability partner. If you’re forced to account for your choices, you’re more likely to make healthier choices.
Up Next...
Go ahead and complete that solid week of Xs on your calendar. Yeah, it feels good! We’re going to tackle the rest of the 40FRESH Rules tomorrow so you know what to expect past day 9. You’re also going to be starting to drink 100% 40FRESH starting tomorrow. Good luck!