While many are sticklers when it comes to the number of calories on their plates, few people add up all the calories in their glass.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has recently published healthy beverage guidelines, similarly to a food pyramid for drinks. It covers everything from water to alcohol and how much you should drink of each every day.
Level one of the healthy beverage guidelines is water. Women should drink nine glasses a day. Men need 13.
Level two is unsweetened coffee or tea which has some health benefits.
Level three is low-fat milk or soy milk; you need about two cups a day. The guidelines also stress that no one over the age of two should be drinking whole milk.
Diet drinks make up level four. You can have about four cups a day of those.
Level five is reserved for artificially-sweetened beverages that have some nutritional value, such as fruit or vegetable juice.
The guidelines are designed to educating people to make healthier selections among the beverages they drink every day because most people get about 20% of their daily calories from something in a glass.