Oh dear, our little Chloe is on the move! Gone are the days of leaving her to play peacefully on the play-mat, as she is now wriggling her way around the living room floor.

Unfortunately she seems to have inherited my dubious sense of direction and so far, can only go backwards. As she can't see where she is going, I keep having to fish her out of slightly odd places.

Yesterday I looked away for a nanosecond, during which she managed to wedge herself underneath the coffee table. On top of her crawling shenanigans, she has also popped up two teeth. I'd heard plenty of teething horror-stories so I think we got off lightly – although we still can't go anywhere without multiple bibs and frozen teething rings.

The icy teethers are also helping to cool her down in the summer heat – a good job as I can hardly sit her down with a can of coke! Now, here's my tenuous link to nutrition. I cringe every day at the number of kids and adults I see drinking sugary drinks. We have an obesity crisis in Bermuda, and not only are we eating our way into the problem, we are drinking our way into it too. Remember, just because something is fat-free, it doesn't mean it won't cause you to put on weight. After all, excess sugar ends up being stored in the body as fat.

It is true that we do tend to eat less in the summertime, but while we may have less in terms of quantity, I'm not sure that equates to less calories. Popsicles, ice-cream, frozen coffees and sodas all cause calories to stack up, often without us noticing.

However, of all the dietary pitfalls you might encounter this summer, sugary drinks are probably the worst – not least, because as they are drinks, we often think they don't count.

The trouble is, it's no use me recommending that you don't have any of these at all, as nothing is quite so thirst quenching on a hot day. At some point, you're bound to cave in!

However, when it comes to choosing a cold summer drink, you can certainly make a smart choice. As you can see from the chart below, the O Water is totally free of calories, sugar and artificial sweeteners. I'll be straight with you – it doesn't taste sweet, but it is slightly fruity and certainly more interesting than water.

I wasn't a fan the first time I tried them, but once I'd stopped expecting them to be very sweet, I started liking them. Now I'm addicted!

If you want something fizzy and soda-like, then you could also try the Izze range of drinks. As you can see, they are not entirely sugar-free, but they are much lower in sugar than a normal soda.

They are simply made from concentrated fruit juice, diluted with sparkling water. No nasty artificial sweeteners here! The design is great and kids love drinking them straight out of the bottle with a straw. I suggest you go easy on these but if you have to have a sweet drink, this is a super-appealing, less sugary option.

Note, however, that although these are no more expensive than ordinary sodas, you can make a similar drink at home by mixing any pure fruit juice with sparkling water yourself. You can also ask for this in bars or restaurants where drinks such as O Water and Izze aren't always served.

Whatever you do though, don't make a habit of drinking mainstream sodas this summer. As you can see, just one small bottle of soda can contain 22 teaspoons of sugar!

Sometimes drinks such as Izze and Sunkist can look similar when you compare nutrition labels, but always, always note the serving size when you look at the labels. One small bottle of Sunkist contains 2.5 servings, but I don't know anyone who sticks to that.

The calorie content of Sunkist (and the other mainstream offenders) is also much higher than either Izze or O Water. It also contains significantly more sodium.

Finally, as if all this weren't bad enough, the full ingredients of Sunkist – other than carbonated water – are: high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium benzoate, food starch — modified, natural flavours, caffeine, glycerol, ester of wood rosin, ascorbic acid, yellow 6 and red 40. Mmmmmm, tasty!

The advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns is a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist. She can be contacted at clinicalnutrition@gmail.com