It is about the Calories

I saw this in the Saturday NY Times. It reminded of the player with a team I was working with who was trying to lose weight. He used to a eat package of low fat Oreos because he thought it was the fat that was making him fat! No man, it is the calories!

From Saturday November 25, New York Times

Given an equal number of calories, fruit juices and smoothies — and particularly the “super premium” ones made by Naked Juice and Odwalla — are certainly healthier than sugary, nutrient-free soft drinks.

But calories aren’t always equal. The amount of sugar in a bottle of fruit juice or a smoothie may far surpass the amount of factory-made sweeteners found in a bottle of cola. While a 16-ounce bottle of regular Pepsi contains about 200 calories, a 16-ounce bottle of Naked Juice’s Chocolate Karma Protein Smoothie contains 380 calories, according to calorie-count.com.

Most of Naked Juice’s products have fewer calories than that — often amounts comparable to those found in nondiet soft drinks.

But childhood obesity — not a lack of vitamins — is the primary reason cited for ridding schools of soft drinks. Replacing them with sugar-laden juices might be more of a marketing move than anything else. A Marketplace reporter, Lisa Napoli, said the juices were “virtuous looking,” because they “make you feel healthy.”

The products may have lots of vitamins, but those amount to “calorie distracters,” wrote the nutrition professor and author Marion Nestle in her recent book “What to Eat” (foodpolitics.com). The nutrition claims may be valid, she wrote, but they “make you forget that juice has calories and is best consumed in limited amounts.”

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Vern Gambetta

Director at Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.