Canned beverages offer convenience and on-the-go refreshment. However, the packaging often obscures the nutritional reality, making it necessary to scrutinize the contents before assuming a drink is healthful. Many canned options are essentially liquid candy, delivering high amounts of sugar and calories without meaningful nutrition. The healthiest choices require an understanding of how to filter marketing claims and focus solely on the foundational nutritional facts.
Nutritional Criteria for Canned Beverages
A healthy canned beverage must meet strict nutritional standards, starting with a low total calorie count. Products containing 100 total calories or less per container are generally better choices, with the best options often containing zero calories. The overarching metric is the sugar content, which should be as close to zero as possible, ideally less than 5 grams of added sugar per serving.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends limiting added sugars to no more than 10% of total daily calories, and a single sweetened can can quickly exceed this limit. While a drink may be low in calories, high sodium content can be a hidden issue, especially in flavored waters or vegetable juices. Look for sodium levels below 140 milligrams per serving. The beverage base should also be natural, such as filtered water, brewed coffee, or real tea, rather than a mix of chemical flavorings and processed ingredients.
Healthiest Categories of Canned Drinks
The healthiest canned choices prioritize water as their main ingredient and avoid caloric sweeteners. Unsweetened sparkling water is a top contender, providing hydration and satisfying carbonation without calories, sugar, or artificial additives. Products labeled “naturally flavored” are ideal, as they use essences derived from fruit without the accompanying sugar.
Unsweetened, ready-to-drink cold brew coffees and teas are excellent options, providing natural compounds like antioxidants and polyphenols. Green tea is rich in antioxidants, and unsweetened varieties deliver these benefits without causing a blood sugar spike. Hopped sparkling waters offer a complex, beer-like flavor using only water and hops, resulting in a zero-calorie beverage alternative to alcohol or soda.
Specific functional beverages, including some canned kombuchas, can be healthy if they adhere to the low-sugar rule. Kombucha is a fermented tea containing probiotics, but many brands load them with fruit juice or cane sugar to mask the naturally tart taste. Look for kombuchas with less than 5 grams of sugar per serving. Even sparkling water with a splash of real fruit juice or puree can be a good choice, typically containing only 5 to 20 calories and 0 to 4 grams of sugar per can.
Hidden Sugars and Artificial Additives
The “health halo” effect often leads consumers to overlook how manufacturers conceal excessive sweeteners in canned drinks. Many products use multiple sugar aliases in the ingredient list to avoid listing “sugar” as the first ingredient by weight. Common examples of these disguised sugars include dextrose, malt syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, and concentrated fruit juice, all processed by the body like any other added sugar.
To reduce calories without sacrificing sweetness, many companies turn to non-nutritive, high-intensity artificial sweeteners. Common ones, such as sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium, provide a sweet taste without adding calories or affecting the “Added Sugars” count. Minimizing dependence on intensely sweet flavors is a sound strategy for better long-term health.
Energy drinks, which are frequently canned, often present a dual problem of over-stimulation and excessive additives. They can contain very high amounts of caffeine, sometimes exceeding the recommended daily limit of 400 milligrams in a single can. These beverages are often fortified with a massive dose of B vitamins, which are water-soluble and simply excreted when consumed in excess, offering little benefit to a person with a balanced diet.
Practical Tips for Selecting Canned Drinks
Making an informed decision relies on knowing exactly where to look on the packaging. Ignore the front-of-can marketing language, such as “natural” or “enhanced,” and immediately locate the Nutrition Facts panel. Within this panel, the most important number is the “Added Sugars” line, which is now listed separately from total sugar content on updated labels.
Check the ingredient list, which is organized by descending order of weight, meaning the first few items are the most abundant. If any type of sugar, syrup, or concentrate is listed among the first three ingredients, the product is likely not a healthy choice. Always compare the serving size to the total volume of the can, as a 16-ounce can might list nutritional information for only an 8-ounce serving. Treat any drink that is not water, unsweetened tea, or unsweetened coffee as an occasional treat rather than a daily beverage.