Sugary drinks are often dubbed a ‘no-no’ by health experts when it comes to your overall health, ability to maintain a healthy weight, and your metabolism. As tasty as beverages like these might be, our sources help explain how their cons (including lack of nutrients, artificial ingredients, etc) outweighs their pros (great or familiar taste). We checked in with health experts to learn more about one high-sugar drink to avoid if you want a strong, consistent and healthy metabolism. Read on for input, tips and suggestions from Christine VanDoren, CN, CPT, certified personal trainer and nutritionist, as well as registered dietitians/ nutritionists: Bridget Swinney, MS, RDN, LD and Sara Chatfield, MPH, RDN.
How Sweet Tea & Similar High-Sugar Drinks Can Affect Your Metabolism
As we age, our metabolism naturally slows down, so the best way to support it (and your ultimate health) is to consume a well-balanced diet, ample glasses of water, to create a consistent sleep schedule and exercise frequently. With that said, sipping on drinks like sweet tea—which can often contain loads of sugar, calories and other unwanted additions— can affect and aid in slowing your metabolism in the long run.
Whether it's in sweet tea or another sugary drink, sugar can disrupt the balance of your hormones, especially insulin. “When your hormones and natural energy are all over the place based on how much sugar you have had for the day, it is not likely that your metabolism will be constant,” VanDoren says. She advises to try to only provide your body with natural sugars in foods like fruit to encourage your metabolism to stay strong and steady. This, she says, can “prevent any slowing that can lead to weight gain that sugary sweet tea can also contribute to due to its higher calorie contents.”
So, what happens to your body after consuming high amounts of sugar like in sweet tea? First, Swinney says, your body breaks down the sugar into a big surge of glucose in the bloodstream, which your body reacts to by making insulin. “Insulin is needed for your body to let the sugar into your cells, so you can use it for energy,” she says. “Extra glucose can cause you to feel a sugar high followed by a drop in energy due to the effect of insulin.”
Some people have insulin resistance, she adds, which means their body is not as sensitive to insulin as it should be, so the body “keeps pumping more insulin out and thus causes a buildup of insulin in the bloodstream.” Because insulin also promotes fat storage, excess amounts could result in that sweet tea adding to weight gain. “If the body can't keep up with the demand for more insulin, pre-diabetes or
diabetes can occur,” Swinney notes.
Chatfield agrees that excess sugar consumption can cause weight gain, and sugar-sweetened beverages like sweet teas are a big culprit because “we may not think of them as being high in calories, and our bodies also don’t recognize the calories in the same way as they do those from food,” she says. This can lead to more calorie intake later on. This, she continues, may lead to changes in fat metabolism. “There is a heightened risk of fatty liver disease, where fat builds up in the liver. Too much insulin from high sugar intake can also be detrimental to artery and heart health,” she says, echoing the other experts.
What To Drink Instead
While tea and iced tea can actually have health benefits from the flavonoid content, Chatfield adds, the high sugar content of sugary sweet teas (popular teas varied from about 28-44 grams of sugar per 12 oz. serving) can quickly put you over the maximum recommended sugar intake of 24 grams per day for most women and 36 grams per day for most men. Chatfield concludes that “unsweetened iced tea is a better choice” for this reason and the others above. If you want to have sweet tea once in a while, the experts stressed that it is fine in moderation, but an excessive amount can cause concern and certainly have a negative effect on your metabolism.
