Soda

Gigazombie Cybermage

Okay, I'm free of most vices, I don't smoke or drink, but this one is pretty bad, and it's keeping me overweight. I'm up to 6 cans of soda a day, maybe even more if I stay up late. Can I replace it with something that doesn't taste like cat piss or garbage? I think the sugar is what's keeping me a little heavy. The caffeine is no problem, I often drink decaffeinated coke.

Organichu

An optimal goal- because it's cheap and accessible and doesn't require any particular supplies- is water. However, as you segue away I found that the most palatable drinks (coming from a guy who used to drink a gallon of soda a day) were the Crystal Lite esque powder mixes. 0 calorie iced tea, lemonade, etc

Gigazombie Cybermage

Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn't say water. The stuff around here tastes... well... bad. Really bad. Those powder mixes, are they the ones you mix with water in order to make it drinkable?

VeritasVR

Loose leaf tea has some good flavor and it's basically water. It takes some getting used though.

QuantumTurk

Tea and coffee, are 0 calorie, or very near it. And if you are watching caffeine, there is decaf coffee, decaf tea options, and if you are buying loose leaf tea, you can decaff it yourself by steeping for about 10-30 seconds and pouring out the liquid. Caffeine is readily water soluble, and this will remove the majority of it. You can also try investing in a filter pitcher of some sort if the local water is bad, though if you are anything like me it was just getting used to water itself more so than it was the water quality. Good luck! And if you cut out soda along with other processed, added sugar things you wont believe how much better fruit tastes! It's like your body re-calibrates what "sweet" is.

Tox

There are several options for flavoring water. There's mixes, there are also a type of flavor drops you can add.

Honestly I'm kicking Mt Dew by mixing regular and diet. Diet soda generally has next to zero calories, and often much less sugar.

I started off mixing it 2-to-1 regular to diet, I'm not mixing 2-to-1 the other way, and planning to go down to all diet soon. The trick is to only drink what you're making, and when you go out to eat don't drink soda at all (I usually drink tea or water). As you get acclimated to the taste, start using more diet and less regular, and keep going until you're all the way down to just diet. From there it's just about finding options for flavoring water. I filter mine, and that improves the taste drastically.

Malodine

I am a big fan of the Propel drink powders, they are what me and my spouse used to cut back on soda.

Gigazombie Cybermage

I might start drinking coffee then. I think I'll keep sodas around for meals, once I can control myself though.

Gigazombie Cybermage

I can't see how anyone could get used to diet soda. Isn't that false sugar really bad for you?

Burtletoy

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote:

Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn't say water. The stuff around here tastes... well... bad. Really bad.

Get a brita?

MushroomStick

Burtletoy wrote:

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote:

Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn't say water. The stuff around here tastes... well... bad. Really bad.

Get a brita?

This, or just buy some bottled water.

Iruka

Tea helped ween me off the soda, filter your water if it tastes bad. The big deer park fridge things arent too expensive at walmart, so theres another option.

Make water as convenient to get as possible, I would also get seltzer and have it around to mix into low sugar juice. I found that what I missed from soda was really the fizz. When I go for one now, I try to limit it to when I'm out, and reach for an izze or some orangeina or something. I still like that fizz when I eat, especially with pizza.

Sometimes I like Naked or V8, but drinking a ton of juice wont help you in the sugar department, but water gets boring.

Fireflash

Yeah I'll suggest water too. Keeping a brita full of cold water in the fridge will solve the taste problem. You can also probably buy big jugs of bottled water at the supermarket for pretty cheap. Water might seem like a bland drink at first when you're addicted to sodas but once you get used to it it's the most refreshing drinks of all

Tallahasseeriel

Water isn't generally something you drink for the taste if you aren't used to it, but it can be quite satisfying if you are thirsty and get a cool glass of clean water. It really will help with quitting too if you get used to drinking it when you are thirsty, and in the right portions.

It's really hard to quit soda if you go into it with the wrong attitude, as it really can cause some nasty headaches and if you are used to getting the taste of soda in you every few hours it can be kind of a bummer too.

I've found the easiest way to do it is to start cutting it way back quickly over a couple of days, maybe by half the amount a day until you aren't drinking any except maybe once a week or so. In between it's much healthier to drink maybe one glass a day of some kind of fruit juice. I usually take it with breakfast as the sugar really helps me wake up.

The worst part about quitting is the headaches but keep in mind how unhealthy six cans a day is. You could very well become diabetic and very easily gain weight, so power through it, it won't kill you, just plan on being really miserable for a couple days.

After that you should start feeling a ton better, not only about your achievement but just straight healthier.

Gigazombie Cybermage

Good points everyone. I'm about 10-15 lbs. overweight even though I don't eat all that much, and sweets for me, besides soda, is rare. I think my doctor is going to kill me herself if I don't cut my soda down.

minirhyder

What about fruity teas?

lonelyahava

I would segue into tea or coffee at first. especially if you're drinking caffeinated soda.

and then water.


We used to get the big cubes of soda for the house and they'd last about a week and a half. Then, we started going to the gym about 6 weeks ago. and i've pretty much been on water since. Not a conscious choice either, just that water tasted better. We went out for lunch the other day and without thinking i ordered a Coke cause that was the natural thing to do. It was so sweet, and honestly so salty, that I ended up downing a whole bottle of water almost immediately afterwards just to try and get non-thirsty.

Also, brita pitchers are godsends. but if you are drinking as much water as I am now (almost up to 3L/day) then you might want to look at getting a tap filter, just for time saving purposes.

kleinfehn

Lemonade mix helped get me off pop. Get something that is 5 calories and buy a water bottle and you are all set. Lost a good bit of weight just by cutting pop out of my diet too.

VeritasVR

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote:

Good points everyone. I'm about 10-15 lbs. overweight even though I don't eat all that much, and sweets for me, besides soda, is rare. I think my doctor is going to kill me herself if I don't cut my soda down.

Soda is like liquid poison, but I think we've established that.

Enc

I mean, you could still have soda if you keep it to an occasional thing, and even then maybe go for the Soda0 varieties. There's a lot of solid advice in this thread about other options, but for someone drinking that much a day to drop it entirely is unrealistic. Look at soda the same way you would ice cream or a turkey dinner. Something for special occasions and in moderation. For your day to day, go with the alternatives mentioned.

I also live where all water is essentially partially filtered swamp and brita does little to clean the flavor. What I usually do to make water better is to fill a jug from the tap, then add 3-4 slices (thin, mind you) of cucumber. Makes the water have a great crisp flavor and overpowers anything else that might be flavoring you up. Alternatively, I've also added a couple spoons of lime, grapefruit or lemon juice for the same purpose; just enough to give you that aftertaste rather than the iron and other nonsense from the tap.

The headaches are from caffeine withdrawal, which essentially is your body pumping more blood into your head that it needs too because the caffeine isn't causing your capillaries to swell anymore. There really isn't a good way to get through it from the amount of caffeine you have been ingesting unless you

1) Cut it entirely and deal with the headaches, they peak at about 72 hours and disappear entirely in about a week at longest. This will essentially "reset" your caffeine tolerance and you won't get as bad of headaches between doses, and it will also make that one cup of coffee feel like rocket fuel.

2) Take smaller amounts to "wean" you off, though it doesn't quite work that way. You will get more, infrequent, headaches that will last until you take another small dose, leading to milder, but more common, headaches over time until you are mostly weaned off of it (about a month). Keeps your headaches from becoming migraine level, but stretches them out over time.

Either way, stay away from most headache medicine if you are doing the first. What will be helping you in this fashion will just be more caffeine (the active ingredient in most pain killers), which will only make it take longer.

etdragon

Seltzer is also a really good option if you like the carbonation. I'm a huge fan of the bubbles so to cut out soda I start with a glass of seltzer and then add a little bit of lemon juice or sour mix or even OJ. It gives me some flavor and the bubbles I want but it cuts the calories down to a minuscule amount.

Daedalus

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote:

I can't see how anyone could get used to diet soda. Isn't that false sugar really bad for you?

Sure, but so is real sugar.

I find that Diet Mitten Dew is the least offensive diet soda, probably because regular Mtn Dew tastes like neon green chemicals to begin with, so there isn't a high bar to reach. I go through about a six-pack of DMD per week. The grocery stores are weaning me off of it by switching a six pack of 20 oz. bottles to a six pack of "metric twenty ounce" 500ml (16.9 oz) bottles for the exact same price.

edit: Or, alternatively, you could limit yourself to one soda per day but make it a really awesome soda. See if any stores in your area sell Boylan's or Jones or one of those delicious brands; you won't be able to afford six per day, anyway.

punk

Soda is one of my most terrible vices, so I feel your pain. I've been trying to quit for what seems like forever. The last time I successfully quit (obviously, it was temporary ), I was drinking this lemon-lime soda water I found at the grocery store. It basically tasted like Diet Sprite, if a little off. But it was good enough for me. It was fizzy, and for some reason that seems to be what gets me about soda. Not the sugar (or fake sugar), or the caffeine...but the bubbles. ><

Eupfhoria

punk wrote:

... It was fizzy, and for some reason that seems to be what gets me about soda. Not the sugar (or fake sugar), or the caffeine...but the bubbles. ><

Kinda the same for me. I've managed to cut down on how much soda I drink, by drinking a lot of fruit juice with sparkling mineral water in it (eg, Pellegrino). This can get expensive quickly though (probably still a lot of sugars in it too, but...eh. At least they're natural). I drink a lot of green tea in lieu of soda now too. Fuck soda.

Maguano

How about seltzer? No sugar (real or fake) and some flavor. pretty tasty and it has bubbles. just don't get that sparkling nutrisweet water. they taste like ass,

Ego

I'd recommend a brita-type jug in your fridge, and mixing that with crushed ice and lemon and/or lime juice.

It's not sweet but it's pretty damned delicious, if you at all like sour things.

Iruka

Eupfhoria wrote:

punk wrote:

... It was fizzy, and for some reason that seems to be what gets me about soda. Not the sugar (or fake sugar), or the caffeine...but the bubbles. ><

Kinda the same for me. I've managed to cut down on how much soda I drink, by drinking a lot of fruit juice with sparkling mineral water in it (eg, Pellegrino). This can get expensive quickly though (probably still a lot of sugars in it too, but...eh. At least they're natural). I drink a lot of green tea in lieu of soda now too. Fuck soda.

They do make a little compact carbonating kitchen gadget now: http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=307354&CCAID=CKSCFRGOOG&mr:trackingCode=70C6CEF9-7759-E011-AD03-001B2163195C&mr:referralID=NA

If I had more money on hand, this would be my solution to the bubbles problem. Its actually reviewed pretty well. The fizz, even now after quitting caffeine, is still something I crave, and I'm not sure why.

QuantumTurk

I will drink about 1 soda a month, when I am out, and typically with fast food, to pile on the damnation. But at home, if I crave bubbles, I'm most likely going to grab a beer. If you are so inclined, and of the appropriate age, treating yourself to a tasty beer (For me that typically means something "craft" though sometimes I do just really want a PBR.) is not so terrible. Sure it is caloric, but Spaten claims beer is healthy :http://www.spatenusa.com/3_products/3_4_beer_health/index.htm and honestly, if you can trust a huge German brewing company, who can you trust? And 1 beer vs 6 sodas wins handily.

Gigazombie Cybermage

My thirst just doesn't seemed to be quenched by water or juice. I'm not much of a beer drinker either, tastes kinda like cat piss. Though I may have just gotten a bad brand and not known it.

finral

I'm a big fan of a little bit of lemon juice in water, but then I like the tartness. Beyond that, the powdered lemonade stuff is a good way to go.

Essee

My fiance has been off soda for a couple months now, I think, and he quit cold-turkey. Water is pretty much the best if you filter it, and if it still tastes bad afterward you can try those other suggestions for masking the off taste (personally, although the water here is pretty awful, filtering alone is enough to make it taste better-- but I think it would've been worse at my old house). In our experience, sparkling water has been good if you're looking for some fizz with your drink, and the drink powders are good as well, but I think what really weaned him off soda was him finding the V8 V-Fusion drinks when he was looking around for a better alternative. They actually seem to be pretty healthy, especially since they're 100% fruit/veggie juice without adding in any sugar, and they taste really good (my fiance was having issues finding something he actually liked to drink, and these hit the spot). He's a big fan of the passionfruit/tangerine flavor, but they have several others if that one doesn't strike your fancy. My fiance's not really a huge fan of juice, either, but he still loves this stuff. Notice I'm not talking about the OTHER varieties of V8, because sometimes those do have added sugar and would not be as healthy, but from my experience (even in Canada) we haven't had a hard time finding this variety anyway. I haven't really looked at the actual caloric content of it because we were looking mostly for something with better nutritional value without worrying about calories, but if you google for it, Campbell's (the company behind V8) seems to think it's fairly low-calorie as well. Edit: Oh yeah, and if you're worried about sodium (if you googled V8 you might find some concerns about sodium content), this particular variety doesn't have the same problem as other V8s-- it's much lower in sodium. So that's not a problem either.

lonelyahava

one thing i tried when i was starting on the water was adding some mint and cucumber slices into the water jug in the fridge.

tasted really really good.

Deebaser

Deebaser

unsweetened ice tea or filtered water. Spruce up the water with a little lemon juice if you like. Don't drink a six pack of soda a day. That's disgusting.

KalTorak

Another vote for filtered water - Brita or Zero Water or Pur or whatever you like. I can't stand the taste of my tap water unfiltered, it really makes a difference. Someone else mentioned keeping it cold - that also makes a difference. For me, ice cold or at least refrigerated water tastes much better than room temperature. I think filters are a more cost-effective way to go than bottled water; just keep a few bottles around to fill up if you're on the go.

I also like making a big batch of iced tea and keeping it in a pitcher. I sweeten it a little bit - it's a tiny bit of sugar compared to soda. Actually instead of sugar (tough to dissolve in cold tea) I use a few squirts of agave nectar - it's sweeter than sugar and has a lower glycemic index (whatever that means).

My third alternative is buying fruit juice (orange, or those 100% juice blends that sometimes have carrot/other vegetable juice in them, Trader Joe's has a good carrot/veg/fruit cocktail blend) and drinking a glass of ~2/3 seltzer water, 1/3 juice. I like the fizziness, and the juice gives it a pretty good amount of flavor. It's still a sugary fizzy drink, but less sugary than soda.

Druhim

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote: »

I can't see how anyone could get used to diet soda. Isn't that false sugar really bad for you?

There's a shitload of bad science and just outright lies about artificial sweeteners that people tend to assume must be true simply because they keep hearing bad things about them.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/are-artificial-sweeteners-safe/

Organichu

I live in Philadelphia and my tap water tastes fine. I drink about 50 gallons of it per month.

lonelyahava

Organichu wrote:

I live in Philadelphia and my tap water tastes fine. I drink about 50 gallons of it per month.

ohgod i miss city water. Specifically philly city water.

whenever we would drive up from delaware to visit my grandmother in germantown, the first thing any of us would do is have a huge glass of Philly water.

so. good.

bowen

That Mio stuff is absolutely amazing, by the way, if your water is less than palatable. Bobble bottles are a good second option to filter it at as you drink (amazing if you live in an area that your water is loooooaded with chlorine.)

Djeet

Gigazombie Cybermage wrote:

I can't see how anyone could get used to diet soda. Isn't that false sugar really bad for you?

I think the more telling question is whether or not the artificial sweeteners are worse for you than the pound of sugar (468 grams) you're getting everyday drinking 6 cans of soda (coke in this example). You're getting the preservatives either way if you do diet or regular.

I don't believe there is any proof that artificial sweeteners are bad for you, and popular dislike for it trends with dislike for "unnatural" things and preference for organic foodstuffs. I think the mistaken belief that Saccharin causes cancer has permanently damaged the reputation of all artificial sweeteners in the hivemind. That said, there's some common sense (IMO) in questioning whether or not it's good to consume so much of something that has no nutritional value (if you're going to do that, water's less bad for you).

Stevia is a natural, calorie-less sweetener, but it doesn't tast quite like table sugar or corn syrup, and it's kinda expensive. Most sweeteners, while all sweet in various degrees, taste differently from one another. Sucralose (Splenda) of all the artificial sweeteners, tastes most like sugar, but you know it's not sugar.

Coke Zero (on ice) tastes pretty close to Coke, and is almost indistiguishable if you doctor it in some way (lime, vanilla, cherry, alcohol).

Cheapest solution would be tap water. If it tastes off, a splash of cranberry or lime juice will likely mask it and makes it taste like something. If a water filter doesn't remove the taste you should be able to pick up spring water from the grocery store, for $2-3 per 2.5/3 gallon jug. Check the source, if it's not a spring it's likely purified tap water. Distilled water will be tasteless, but will have no mineral content (if that matters to you).

Druhim

Also stevia hasn't been tested nearly as rigorously as artificial sweeteners have, so artificial sweeteners actually have abundant research showing they're safe whereas people just assume stevia is safe just because it's "natural".