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By MensHealth.com

Americans have a drinking problem, and not the type you might think. As the authors of the best-selling book Eat This, Not That!, David Zinczenko and co-author Matt Goulding get e-mails all the time from readers who claim they eat carefully, they work out consistently, but they still can't get the needle on the scale to budge. "What gives?" goes the collective, exasperated refrain from the stagnant dieter. Read Article

What most people don't know is that the biggest roadblock between you and the body you want isn't found at the end of a fork, but at the bottom of a glass. As a country we take in 21 percent of our daily calories from beverages and, according to the FDA, the average American takes in 82 grams of added sugars every day. That's 20 teaspoons, which contribute an empty 317 calories to our already calorie-saturated diets.

Sure, some of that comes from soda, but even if you've traded regular Coke for diet, whole milk coffee drinks for low-fat lattes, and you barely touch the booze, you could still be taking in 20 percent or more of your calories from beverages. Add in a few of those other indulgences-or consume one of the liquid disasters listed here- and you can suddenly be sucking in a few days' worth of calories through a straw! (You read that last sentence right.)

To give you a better idea of the drinks most responsible for sabotaging your health, fitness, and weight-loss goals, we created a list of America's Unhealthiest Drinks.

20. Worst Light Beer

Samuel Adams Light (12 oz bottle)

124 calories

10 g carbohydrates

Not a bad beer, but don't think you can sit around sipping these for four quarters without eventually paying the price in belly fat. With tasty beers like Beck's 64-calorie Premier Light readily available, why throw away 60 calories every time you twist the top?

19. Worst "Healthy" Drink

Glaceau VitaminWater (20 oz bottle)

130 calories

33 g sugar

Vitamins and water might sound like the ultimate nutritional tag team, but what the label doesn't say is that a bottle of this stuff carries nearly as much sugar and calories as a can of Coke. Makes sense, though, since this so-called functional beverage is produced by our often-sugar-crazy friends at The Coca-Cola Company.

18. Worst Soda

Sunkist (12 oz can)

190 calories

52 g sugar

Sweetened soft drinks account for about 10 percent of the average American's calorie consumption-about 200 completely unnecessary calories a day. For someone looking to lose 10 pounds fast, there is no simpler, quicker way to do it than by canning the soda.

17. Worst Beer

Sierra Nevada Stout (12 oz bottle)

210 calories

20 g carbohydrates

A full-flavored beer, no doubt, but one that packs a hefty caloric wallop. Switching out a sixer a week for a lighter beer would save you 9 pounds of extra flab this year. Cheers to that!

16. Worst Lemonade

Minute Maid Lemonade (20 oz bottle)

250 calories

68 g sugar

This is little more than glorified sugar water, with only a trace amount of real juice. Lemonade in general is a dubious drink, but if you can't stand the thought of summer without it, try Santa Cruz-brand lemonade. When you bring the bottle home, dump it into a pitcher and add 4 ounces of water for every 8 ounces of lemonade. Otherwise, you may as well drink a Coke with a squeeze of lemon.

15. Worst Tea-Like Substance

SoBe Zen Tea (20 oz bottle)

275 calories

70 g sugar

Though the name might scream "healthy" to the unsuspecting drinker, there is little to celebrate about this beverage. SoBe can cram their drinks full of healthy-sounding extracts and vitamin supplements, but they can't escape the fact that high-fructose corn syrup outranks tea on the ingredients list.

14. Worst Energy Drink

Rockstar Original (16 oz can)

280 calories

62 g sugar

Energy drink makers might feign a level of health by fortifying their products with a cocktail of vitamins and minerals, but don't be fooled: Any minimal benefit they might provide is snuffed out by the blanket of sugar and calories each can contains. Want energy? Try a cup of homebrewed black tea. It nearly zero calories and contains a deluge of disease-fighting antioxidants.

13. Worst Iced Tea

Lipton Iced Brisk Lemon Iced Tea (20 oz bottle)

325 calories

81 g sugar

Iced tea is loaded with metabolism-boosting, cancer-fighting compounds called polyphenols, but Lipton does its best to undo any potential healthy benefit you might derive from the tea's antioxidants by drowning them in 20 teaspoons of sugar. Your tea of choice should carry no more than 15 grams of sugar per 20-ounce serving.

12. Worst Juice Imposter

Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can)

360 calories

84 grams of sugar

These hulking calorie cannons (5 percent juice, 95 percent sugar water) are sold at gas stations and convenience stores across America for the low, low price of 99 cents, making this quite possibly the cheapest source of empty calories in the country.

11. Worst Chocolate Milk

Nesquik (16 oz bottle)

400 calories

10 g fat (6 g saturated)

60 g sugar

Quik and other chocolate milk manufacturers try to sell parents on the bone-building calcium found in their product, but what they don't talk about is the fact that a single bottle of this stuff contains as much sugar as three Haagen Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream bars. Yikes. Make it yourself at home with 2 percent milk and a scoop of real powdered cocoa-you'll save about 150 calories, plus get the antioxidant benefits of cacao without the high-fructose corn syrup.

10. Worst Chai Tea Drink

Caribou Coffee Large Chai Tea Latte

420 calories

47 g sugar

This is exactly the kind of drink that health-conscious consumers knock down each morning thinking they're doing themselves a favor. Nothing could be further from the truth. Flavored lattes-even ones flavored with seemingly healthy stuff like chai-are bad news. Stick to skinny lattes or unsweetened chai.

9. Worst Kid's Hot Beverage

Cosi Kid's Hot Chocolate (12 oz)

436 calories

60 g sugar

While most parents sip their lattes and cappuccinos, most kids sip on hot chocolate. Problem is, few things could be worse for a growing body. There are more calories in this small drink than in Cosi's Gooey Grilled Cheese sandwich, plus enough sugar to send your kids bouncing off the walls.

8. Worst Summer Cocktail

Pina Colada

625 calories

75 g sugars

Made from a blend of sickly-sweet pineapple juice and fat-riddled coconut milk, pina coladas may be this summer's biggest beach-body saboteurs. In fact, the only redeeming part of this drink is the garnish - that lonely chunk of pineapple hanging from the rim. Try a lime daiquiri or a mojito instead and save up to 400 calories.

7. Worst Coffee Alternative

Starbucks Venti White Hot Chocolate

640 calories

23 g fat (15 g saturated)

76 g sugar

Caffeine abstainers will find little nutritional refuge in Starbucks' hot chocolate concoctions. This one packs an entire day's worth of saturated fat, with more than enough sugar to set you up for a dramatic mid-afternoon energy crash. Stick with the Steamed Apple Juice instead.

6. Worst Hot Coffee

Starbucks Venti 2% Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha

660 calories

22 g fat (14 g saturated)

95 g sugar

Important Rule of Thumb: Avoid holiday-themed items from coffee shops at all costs. From peppermint to egg nog to pumpkin, these are often the most sugar- and fat-packed drinks you'll find at places like Starbucks. Make your own flavored drinks instead, using skim milk, sugar-free syrups, and, of course, skipping the whip.

5. Worst Blended Fruit Drink

Baskin-Robbins Pomegranate Banana Fruit Blast Smoothie (32 oz)

1,020 calories

232 g sugar

With three of the five worst drinks in America, you have to wonder if Baskin-Robbins is in bed with the sugar cane industry. One thing is for sure: People ordering this "smoothie" expecting a healthy afternoon snack have something else coming to them. The second ingredient, after water, is sugar. If you must sip on something at Baskin- Robbins, make it a small low-fat Cappuccino Blast, which has just 220 calories and one-fifth of the sugar of this Fruit Blast.

4. Worst Frozen Coffee Drink

Cosi Gigante Double OH! Arctic (24 oz)

1,033 calories

35 g fat

177 g carbohydrates

Frozen coffee amalgamations pollute the antioxidant powers of a simple cup of joe with a huge hit of whole milk, sugary syrups, and whipped cream. What you end up with, in worst-case scenarios like this, is half a day's worth of calories, ready to be sipped down in a matter of minutes. Want a cold caffeine kick? Try iced coffee.

3. Worst Smoothie

Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 oz)

1,170 calories

169 g sugars

Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milkshake, with more sugar than an entire bag of chocolate chips. (Note: We're pretty sure this is the drink Hollywood actors rely on when looking to put on 20 pounds for the role as a heavy!)

2. Worst Milkshake

Baskin-Robbins Large York Peppermint Pattie Shake (32 oz)

2,210 calories

103 g fat (57 g saturated)

281 g sugar

The freakish brother of the Heath monster, the York shake earns its title as the most sugar-saturated product in America. To put it in perspective, you'd have to down 15 Twinkies to match the sugar content in this Baskin-Robbins blunder.

1. The Worst Drink in America

Baskin-Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake

2,310 calories

108 g fat (64 g saturated)

266 g

Let's look at America's Worst Drink in numbers:

73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.

66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.

11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.

12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.

240: The number of minutes you'd need to spend on a treadmill, running at a moderate pace, to burn it off.

5 Ways To Eat Healthy On The Run

Written By Sarah Y.

When you have a really busy schedule, it can sometimes be pretty hard to figure out how to eat healthy. It's just so much easier and faster to run through the drive-thru when you don't have a lot of time in between your commitments. It's important to be aware of the possibilities you have to be more health-conscious and disciplined individual. Here are 5 ways to eat healthy when you're on the run. Read Article

1. Pack Healthy Snacks In Your Car

This is something that you usually don't think about until you are actually hungry and want something while you're driving. Since you don't have any food with you, it almost justifies the choice to stop and pick something up. So if you plan ahead of time each, you can figure out how to best stock your car. Some things that work really well in your car include: granola bars (as long as the weather isn't too warm), nuts (peanuts, almonds, and walnuts), trail mix, and even cereal (frosted mini-wheats or a granola-based cereals are really good options). Dried fruit such as raisins, apricots, pineapple, or cranberries are also great to snack on.

2. Don't Stop At Restaurants Where You Know You Won't Get Anything Healthy

Even if you have intentions of ordering the fruit and yogurt parfait from McDonald's, you might give in to the double cheeseburger meal anyway. Don't tempt yourself unless you are really confident you can stick to your healthy choices. There are a lot of restaurants that have the perception of having healthy options, but the good stuff on the menu is usually never very healthy. Avoid stopping at the places that you might feel guilty about later.

3. Eat A Bigger Meal Before You Go On Your Way

If you can anticipate and plan for a busy day, it makes it a lot easier to figure out how you can eat healthy. Maybe on days where you know that you might not get a chance to make your own healthy meal, you could eat a bigger breakfast. Eating more for breakfast can help stave off your hunger, which makes it easier to resist making unhealthy food choices. Preventing yourself from getting that hungry is really important for helping you stay on track. It's true that people compromise their food choices when they are really hungry, as they care more about satisfying their hunger than eating healthy.

4. Research Places That Will Have Healthy And Fast Options

Often there are many restaurants or stores that provide convenient meal choices that people aren't even aware of. Looking more into what your area has for "fast food" besides the automatic places (McDonald's, Subway, etc.) might help you discover a lot of options that you might not have known were even available to you. Look up restaurants online or talk to other people. Find out where your friends and co-workers eat when they're on the run. Learning how other people eat makes it easier for you to develop your own eating habits.

5. Make Your Own Meal And Bring It With You

This is probably the most obvious answer, but it is sometimes pretty hard to make the time and effort to pack yourself food, especially when you are busy worrying about other things in your day. But taking time the night before or in the morning to make yourself a balanced meal to take along with you will help you out a lot. Making yourself a meal before you actually need to eat it will help you keep from slipping up and making a spontaneous unhealthy decision later in the day. It's much easier to eat healthy sandwiches and fruits if you intentionally pack them for yourself.

People often put so much focus and importance on their responsibilities throughout the day that they push meals down their list of priorities. It can be dangerous to do this because then eating healthy isn't taken into serious consideration for each day. Getting yourself into the habit of planning out your entire day's eating schedule will get you on the right track to sticking to your goal of eating healthy. Your diet doesn't have to suffer just because you are crunched for time, so just remember these 5 ways to eat healthy on the run in order to be more consistent with your healthy meal choices throughout the day.

The secret? Little perforations in the clothing that cut down on wind resistance. The outfits aren't as chic as a Tron garment, but hey, no one said sprintin' was easy.