Soda habits

joasia · Post by **joasia** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:30 pm

I use to drink regular soda a long time ago. Then when I developed a weight problem I switched to diet. Over time I read a lot about how much sugar regular soda has and how much artificial sweetener diet soda has and cancer in lab rats and all that. So I have cut out soda for over two years now. I mainly stick to unsweetened iced tea, water, etc. Anyway, when I did take a sip of diet soda the other day, it tasted really gross. And the real stuff is way to sugary. Seems like soda has addictive properties. Let it go for a while and it will seem gross.

florafloraflora · Post by **florafloraflora** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:17 pm

Congratulations to you for kicking the soda habit. I'm lucky that we never had soda around the house growing up (we drank it only at birthday parties), but I've seen friends of mine trying to shake the habit, and it's one of the hardest food habits to quit.

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:59 pm

I'm the same. Grew up with regular soda, wanted to lose weight around 13 and switched to diet. Drank gallons over the years. A couple years ago got rid of the stuff altogether. I will occasionally drink it now but usually stick to club soda.

kccc · Post by **kccc** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:57 pm

I gave up diet coke when pregnant - just didn't want to do caffeine or artificial sweeteners. I expected to abstain only for nine months.

But after my child was born, I nearly spat out my first sip of DC. What a nasty-tasting bunch of chemicals!

Never went back to the dark side.

(Coffee, on the other hand...)

Post by **reinhard** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:34 pm

Good for y'all. Soft drinks are a big deal. A bigger deal, calorically speaking, than any other single food item:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050618/food.asp

The drinks represented 14 percent of these adults' total daily energy intake. "For the nutrition world, that's an extremely high value," Bermudez says.

She explains that, 10 years ago, white bread was the mainstay of the U.S. dietâ€”at an energy contribution of only 5 to 7 percent. Before the 1990s, sodas and fruit drinks provided only about 5 percent of the average person's daily calorie load, she adds.

I do permit myself soft drinks on S-days, but I've found I'd usually rather get my sugar some other way.

Reinhard

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:59 pm

Being in Georgia, Sweet Tea was my former S drink of choice. I managed to shake the habit loose 2 years ago when on WW, but after quitting that and slowly losing the habits that created, Sweet Tea began to creep back in. Occaisionally at first, and then more and more regularly. Since No-S I've again eliminated it, except for occaisionally on S days. It is still an S day treat worth pursuing though. The velvety brown nectar of the gods.

I'll occaisionally start a jag of some sort of diet soda (usually Fresca or diet root beer), but like others, I'm wary of the artificial sweetners, so I don't drink much of them.

david · Post by **david** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:11 pm

I've recently started brewing sweet tea at home, but I only put about 1/4 the sugar most recipes call for. I'm finding it a good bulwark against soda cravings.

--david

Brandon · Post by **Brandon** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 11:33 pm

david wrote:I've recently started brewing sweet tea at home, but I only put about 1/4 the sugar most recipes call for. I'm finding it a good bulwark against soda cravings.

--david

So you use about 1/4 cup per 1/2 gallon pitcher? Glad to hear it works for you.

I actually like the taste just fine unsweetened, so when I want some variety from water, I'll have a glass of unsweet tea, but when I want to splurge on the weekends, it needs to be the real thing. My family always used 1 cup of sugar per 1/2 gallon pitcher, which seems about right to me. Some restaurants around here make it sweeter. A little sweeter can be good, but it's real easy to get too much.

david · Post by **david** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:41 pm

A lot of restaurants make it too sweet for me (if they even offer sweet tea). I have a 1 gallon pitcher and I use between 1/2 and 2/3 a cup of sugar. Occasionally I'll throw in a cinnamon stick (not Southern tradition, I know).

--david