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Everyone knows that exercise and a healthy diet are the key to weight loss. So if you’ve been following a healthy eating plan and consistent exercise plan to try to lose weight yet don’t seem to be losing any weight, you are probably very frustrated. You might be surprised to know that this can be very common among people trying to lose weight, yet the reason is something you’d never guess.
When you’re trying to lose weight, cutting added sugar out of your diet, or minimizing your sugar intake, is imperative. Sugar is very detrimental to your health since it puts empty calories into your diet and can turn into fat if the energy isn’t used.
But, you might still be bringing added sugars into your diet without realizing it by drinking something that most people think is healthy: iced tea.
Unless you’re brewing your own tea and putting it over ice yourself, iced tea is likely slowing down your metabolism. Bottled iced tea usually comes with an unnecessary large amount of added sugars. Tea itself is sugarless, so any sugar in iced tea is added, and usually tea companies put way too much sugar in their drinks.
Iced tea might seem like it’s healthier than soda, but if you take a closer look into the nutrition facts, you’ll see they are almost the same. For example, a single serving of Pure Leaf Sweet Tea has 42 grams of sugar and 160 calories - the daily recommended intake of sugar for adult women is about 25.5 grams. So a glass of iced tea can overload your sugar intake for the day.
If want to keep drinking iced tea, there is nothing wrong with making it yourself as a midday caffeine boost. If you want to sweeten your tea, try using a half teaspoon of sugar, or even better, try natural sweeteners like honey or agave.
