Beverages

Drinks are an easy blind spot in a diet because the body registers liquid calories differently from solid food — they're less filling, so it's simple to consume a lot without noticing. That's the core lesson of this category: what you drink matters as much as what you eat. Water, unsweetened tea and black coffee are essentially calorie-free and hydrating, with coffee and tea adding antioxidants and a caffeine lift.

At the other end sit sugar-sweetened soft drinks, energy drinks and even fruit juices, where the sugars are concentrated and the fibre absent. Milk-based and plant-based drinks are a middle ground, contributing genuine protein, calcium or fortified vitamins. Alcoholic drinks bring their own calories — about seven per gram of alcohol — separate from any sugar.

Every beverage here is per 100 ml-equivalent (100 g). Use the rankings and the gram scaler to compare a realistic glass or mug.