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The Soda Situation - Succulent Drinks w/o the Sweets?
Ticron asks: "Like most of you, my job and lifestyle revolves around drinking lots and lots of caffeine - usually in the form of soda. I've been trying to cut back on my sugar intake lately, and am interested in what some of you drink that isn't loaded down with the sweet stuff. Diet drinks have little to no flavor, and fruit punches have almost (sometimes more!) sugar than sodas themselves. Is there anything out there that maintains the convenience of a canned drink, but without all the sugar?"
I write this as a suck down the sweet sweet taste of Diet Dr. Pepper. Did you know it tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper? I'm sure you have heard that, and from the sounds of it, you don't agree. I tried diet sodas on and off but, like you, I found them repulsive. Then with nothing else in the house (other than water, YUK!) I committed to finishing the case of diet that I bought. By the time I finished consuming it I honestly couldn't tell it was diet. It was as if a switch in my head went off. Ever since then regular sodas syrupy and too sweet. So, while I cannot recommend an alternative, I do encourage you to give it another try. And if you're like me, you'll stop consuming 1/2 your daily caloric intake from soft drinks. (8 sodas X 110 calories each = poking new notches in belt)
Bonus, it does/n't cause cancer! FDA Reviewing Italian Aspartame Study
how bout coffee...
I know, it doesn't fit the requirements capture (being tasteless) but I would highly recommend water. Tap, preferably because it's cheap, but bottled is good too. If you can get used to it you'll save a bundle and it's a lot healther (and generally more refreshing.)
Otherwise, my favorite beverage is milk, but that's not very convienient.
Are you kidding, diet drinks are much sweeter than their sugar counterparts. The difference is that diet drinks have a very slight aftertaste (I no longer notice) and less "bite" than regular sodas. In related news, aspartame has been cleared as not carcinogenic by the FDA.
Coffee. Black.
Tea. Black || Green.
Easy, convenient, and zero sugar.
Fort Garry Dark Ale
Trolling is a art,
Get some good coffee and a French press. A nice, mild roast shouldn't need sugar but has enough caffeine to keep you up.
After all, I am strangely colored.
I have found a compromise between diet and regular, and become a fan of Coca-Cola C2. It is essentially 1/2 Coke and 1/2 Diet Coke. Doesn't taste too bad at all.
They have a free sample too
Its hard to find stuff in the store that doesn't have sugar in it. My tendancy was to think that juice would be the way to go but almost all juices have just as much sugar as a can of coke, if not more. Even the so called "light" juices.
I've found that drinking more of the following drinks helps:
*Unsweetened tea
*Water
*Soy milk (actually, not that bad)
*Make your own juice
I feel fortunate that I work at a place that serves unsweetened tea and water all day long. It makes it easier. But if you don't work at such a place, buy a electric kettle and don't feel embarrased. Water bottles by the 24 pack are also economical or just have a water dispenser filled by someone local. Hang in there and you can do it.
Crisp refreshing and good for you. I recomend Perrier or San Pellegrino which you can also get in various citrus flavors. Some people also like Apollinaris but it tastes muddy to me.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
Have you tried tea?
Brew it strong. If you like, let it cool or mix it with ice. It's nice with lemon, even without sugar. Or, maybe with honey (supposedly better for you than sugar).
You can brew it in advance - a few litres at a time, and keep it in the fridge...if convienence is your issue.
--jjj.
I don't want to get used to diet because I know it sucks.
Just drink carbonated water or something.
Giving up soda (really, caffeine in general) is really a great thing. You feel better overall, and your waking hours feel much more... Awake. But, I'd also suggest tea. No sugar at all. Iced tea is really refreshing, and you get your caffeine (if you want, unlike sodas there is no taste sacrifice for decafe).
Soda is 100% sweetened with corn syrup, which has been shown to have a direct link to obesity and diabetes. 100% juice juices (not juice cocktails) are naturally sweetened with sugar. Even if a juice has more sugar per serving than a soda it is still better for you as it is real sugar and not corn syrup.
Coffee or tea are excellent. Both are great hot, room temp, or cold, so long as they are good quality and unsweetened. It's also not hard to find large bottles of good quality tea (Trader Joes is good for this) which you can swig off of like a 40. Personally, I'll drink them from a paper bag, just to make coworkers think. And yes, some will actually ask if it's beer.
to a good friend of mine called Diet Mountain Dew... Ah... Let me count the ways...
Have you tried reduced-sugar Red Bull? It probably tastes horrible and is really expensive, but maybe it'll help you break the habit... Could be worth a try.
I never really liked the taste of diet either. I liked regular Coke, but not most of the other flavors. However, I wanted to cut down on the sugar. I mostly started drinking iced tea with lemon. I also tried the various diet sodas with lemon and like some of them. In fact, I find them quite tasty that way.
My particular favorites are diet Coke and diet Dr. Pepper with lemon. In fact, I REALLY like the latter with lemon.
When I'm at a restaurant that doesn't have iced tea or lemon, I will mix the diet with about a quarter lemonade or another option. This takes the nasty diet taste away.
However, you mention the "convenience of can beverages", so the routine of doing the squeezing of some lemon sounds like it won't be an acceptable option.
Sean
Tap water tastes fucking gross, and they slowly whittle down the standards for it without telling anyone. Plus, uh, how many times do they clean the pipes? Oh? And the "last leg" into your home? Never, you say?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Yes, I know Penn and Teller found some idiots who couldn't tell the difference between bottled/storebought/filtered and tap. Good for them. In unrelated news, I don't taste a difference between the various wines. Others can.
And what the fuck is up with fluoridation? Yeah, let's mix a poison in people's water and hope there are no harmful side effects.
I will agree that milk is awesome. I drink over 2 US gallons of skim milk a week. Good stuff.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Do a 50/50 mix of club soda a fruit juice just make sure it is pure fruit juice. Not the stuff with "high fructose corn syrup". This cuts the sugar, still gives some sweet but has no artifical stuff.
... lol.. partly because my name is Joe, but also because I drink LOTS of coffee .. coffee black or with cream and sweetner...
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
Propel Water tastes good with very little sugar. It's what I drink.
...is hard to find. The only thing I can think of that comes close is some of the flavored teas that places sell nowadays. One thing that might help would be to find one of those Teavana places in the local mall and try the free samples until you find a flavor you like (and then buy something similar at the supermarket, because Teavana is Not Cheap).
If you just want sweet and sugar free without caffeine, that's easy: just get some flavored water (I like Fruit2O).
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Diet cherry is a decent drink, and if you get stuck drinking diet coke, add some lemon juice to cut the after taste. Eventually you will get hooked enough that you can drink it straight.
You have to get over the hump and drink diet crap for a few weeks to get enough in you to turn that switch on.
They also have low-cal add-ins that you dump in a drink, so you can add your own flavor to diet coke or diet 7 up if you want. Not great, but a lot of variety.
For non-caffinated, try koolaid or some of crystal lite drinks.
At least if you read the 10-second health news today: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=health&id =4146981
Men who drink more than 2 litres of tap-water per day have a 50% increase in bladder cancer.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
I've actually vomited from trying to drink diet colas, but a lot of other diet drinks are alright. For non-caffeinated, diet Sierra Mist is at the top of my list. And recently I've been drinking a lot of black cherry Fresca, which doesn't taste nearly as bad as regular Fresca. For caffienated (I quit a little over a week ago), I've found that diet Code Red Mountain Dew is pretty tasty. For real caffeine, I used to drink one diet Rock Star every morning, but it took some adjustment before the nastiness went away.
Try The Switch http://www.switchbev.com/
It's carbonated juice. It's pretty good, and it satisfies the craving for the fizzy soda thing while still being as healthy as juice. It's a pretty good mix.
I'm not shilling for the product, I just like it.
Reeses
And loads of it !
I drink about 2 1.5 litre bottles of carbonated water a day.
aperently its not only good for my health, but its also good for my dental hygene
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
1. Coffee
2. Diet Dr Pepper
3. Coca-Cola Zero
Diet Pepsi is kind of weak, and Diet Coke is, by the company's own admission, not even supposed to taste like Coca-Cola.
And, although I've never resorted to it, I've heard that caffeine is available in pill form.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
Here's a better idea: drink whatever you want to drink, regardless of caffeine content. Drink juice. I dunno. Then, take a Nodoz pill.
That's what I do. Why beat around the bush with your caffeine? You know you're an addict anyway. The only reason to avoid Nodoz is a state of denial. (Well, it would be easy to overdose and kill yourself, but that wouldn't be easy to do on accident.)
Property is theft.
No caffeine, but these have got some major sweetness going on, like kool-aid made with double the sugar-flavor mix.
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/?p=100
Meanwhile, I also like Diet Code Red from Mountain Dew, it is pretty flavorful and highly caffeinated, althought not available in some markets, like mine, oh how I dream of diet code red.
You could go with one of those diet energy drinks like diet red-bull or diet amp or diet rip-it. HIghly caffeniated and zero cal.
Of course you are going to get all kinds of horrible cancer and brain diseases, but if you live in the USA you are probably eating enough GM food that you are screwed anyway, so might as well enjoy it.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I'm not sure if any of their pop's have caffeen but Jone's Soda has won awards for best tasting diet soda.
I think that thinkgeek also sells it but I pick it up at Target...
~ Mooga
Try those drinks, they use splenda sweetener (derived from sugar, no calories)... Pepsi One, Coca Cola Zero. They're actually pretty good; def better than diet.
Just MacGyver yourself up an energy drink. Take a thermos of orange juice or something, grind up a caffiene pill or two into it, and let it sit. Bam, energy drink.
Now, I never said that this was a good, safe idea. It -might- work. Don't blame me if you go into convulsions.
I usually like to drink iced tea with a little bit of sugar added. That way you can control the amount of sugar you intake, and get a little bit of a caffene buzz as well. I also add a hint of lime if available as well...
In linux libertas
What I do is boil a large container (I normally make 2-3 these days, to keep some at home) of tea and you can bring it to work. I normally use the normal lipton packets, about 6 of them for half a gallon or so, and maybe like 10 of them for a gallon or a gallon and a half. The key thing is that you boil the water and then let it cool down a little before you add the tea bags. This way the tea will not be bitter, if you add it when its still hot, it will come out bitter. This has let me stop drinking soda almost all the time, and the best part is people from work love it too. Some of the other programmers will drink my tea and then decide to make their own. They normally will end up making and bringing in something different and it's a lot of fun and you get to try new things. Other than that, drinking ice water is great for those late nights as well.
fruit punches have almost (sometimes more!)
Agreed. This is why I thought 'What's the use?' when they said that they were going to replace the sodas in many schools with water*, fruit juice, and lowfat milks
Examples:
Orange Juice: 110 cal, 1 cup(8fl oz)
Apple Juice: 120
Lemonade: 131
Skim Milk: 90
1/2%/whole Milk: 104/121/149
Coke: 105 for 1 cup.
If a kid's liquid intake is unaffected, he's going to get more calories from the majority of options. Only skim has fewer, while 1% is virtually the same. Heaven forbid they offer chocolate milk(1%/157). The only immediate benefit that I can see is that juices have more vitamens.
I'd suggest leaving the diets in there. I drink alot of water, but I like having flavor. I hope they include diet lemonade.
*ok, it's good, but is it any better than the free stuff from the water fountain?
I don't read AC A human right
You were a little vague as to what you really wanted. Are you drinking soda for the caffine, the taste, or both? Here are some suggestions:
ThinkGeek has a nice collection of interesting drinks. Although, you might want to research each ones nutritional content. If you're looking for a caffeine boost without all the extras, then caffienated water might be something to look into. I haven't ever had anything like that though, so I wouldn't know if it's actually bad for you or not.
The healthiest alternative to soda is probably seltzer, although if you decide to drink this I recommend getting a variety with flavor (lemon, lime..) because plain seltzer doesn't always taste so great. I actually enjoy drinking this stuff more than water, and you can buy canned versions that come in a decent sized case at your local food market.
The other obvious choices are coffee or tea. You can buy either in bottles, although unless you make it yourself, you might end up buying something that's about as healthy as the soda you're trying to replace. The only bottled coffee that I like is the Starbucks stuff, but it's not something that I would like to have very often.
Of course, if you're actually thirsty, I've found that just having water is good enough. It might not be as tasty as soda, but (unless contaminated) it's much better for you.
Not as bad or as much as high fructose corn syrup laden beverages. Plus many varieties/flavors can be had from VitaminWater. It's light enough to drink by the gallons practically, so very refreshing, but also very tasty. Some of the humor on their site is pretty good too.
Buy some strong, energy boosting ginseng powder/crystals at your local asian market and mix it with tea. The only problem with it is that it makes your libido skyrocket. I'm a girl so it doesn't matter so much, but if you're a guy- be sure to wear appropriate pants just in case.
I mostly drink either water, or coffee with just pinch of sugar in it (just enough to take a little bit of the edge off - less than half a small spoon's worth), But if I have the time, I'll make iced tea, and drink it unsweetened (and I almost always drink that in restaurants). When I absolutely must have a canned fizzy beverage, I usually go for Polar lemon seltzer - not too fizzy, and with just a little bit of lemon mixed in.
I do have one weakness when it comes to sodas - I like the old-school "real" root beers that are made with sugar instead of corn syrup. Once in a while I might have one (like about once per month or so) And about 2 Dr. Peppers a year. I really don't like traditional colas at all, so it's not tough to keep away from them.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Farmers Union iced coffee (http://www.farmersunion.com.au/fu_icedcoffee.aspx ) is my choice. Made from low-fat milk, a reasonably low sugar concentration when compared with other alternatives, and probably the best tasting IC on the market in Australia. (Though, the Pauls "Ice Break" is a close second, Dairy Farmers "Dare" a reaonable third, and the OAK Iced Coffee a distant, but acceptable fourth).
In my trips to the US/England, I haven't been able to find anything that is reasonably comparable in terms of taste (usually, way too sugary) - does anyone that has tried Farmers Union, have any suggestions for US-Based comparable alternatives?
Red.
you buy product shillings by the pound.
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
I used to think this way, but there's an issue I have with Nodoz: it hits you all at once. Whereas you can consume a beverage over the course of half an hour and smoothly transition into and out of the caffeine state, a Nodoz pill hits you fast and hard. Too harsh for me.
If other reasons we do lack, we swear no one will die when we attack
Diet Coke with Splenda has all the sickening sweetness of regular Coke.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Why not make your own carbonated drink: mix Perrier or other carbonated water with 100% fruit juice. Start with a 50/50 mix, and taper to 2/3 carbonated H20 to 1/3 juice as you get used to reduced sugar content. Tastes great, and a lot less sweet than a canned drink. 100% natural. Cranberry juice works best, followed by a mixed berry juice. I'm not a fan of apple or orange for mixing (they taste too acidic for my liking). Make sure you buy 100% juice (it will say 100% on the label), as a lot of bottled "juice" is actually just flavored water with extra sugar added. As a bonus as we enter summer, add a shot of Vodka and a lime slice, and you've got yourself a cooler for a fraction of the cost of buying one at the liquor store. Oh, and ditch the caffeine. Contrary to popular belief, you body will continue to function without the chemical crutch.
And, as other posts have alluded to* (and/or explicitly said), your body can develop a dependence on caffeine and if you will suffer through the week or so without, you will find that you really don't miss it that much. I used to practically wash down NoDoze with Jolt all day long; now I get by on a cup of coffee in the morning (and I can skip that on warm mornings). And I used to be able to go to sleep two hours after downing 2 NoDoze, but the quality of my sleep is noticably better since I've reduced my caffeine input. So, I don't know if my system was actually dependent on caffeine, or if caffeine was simultaneously causing and ameliorating sleep deprivation.
* my preemptive apologies to any grammar nazis** who catch my dangling preposition
**Does mentioning grammar nazis trigger Godwin's Rule?
Tea. Either black tea with suger (a spoonfull of suger is about 1/6th as much as a can of softdrink) or white tea. I don't mean black-tea-with-milk, white tea is a special way of picking and preparing tea that gives a very light, smooth tea when brewed.
It's healthy, and nicely relaxing.
At only 5 calories, it probably doesn't have a whole lot of fruit juice. It might be tastier than diet soda, though, and cranberry juice gives a lot of flavor per ounce.
TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
No, I'm not referencing the testicles you have near the crotch of your legs. I'm talking about the drink Bawls. It has tons of caffeine and not as much sugar. And it tastes like Sprite + Speed.
Have you tried Coca-Cola Zero? In response to people like myself who hate the metalic flavour of Diet Coke, Coca-Cola responded with Zero which tastes exactly like Coke only without the calories. You can find a press release about the product here. It's fantastic stuff and if they ever come out with a Cherry variation on Coca-Cola Zero, I'll be ecstatic. Give it a try. It may be the solution to your problem.
I ran into this about 10 years ago, and with the amount of soda's in my daily diet I was consuming 2000+ calories a day... nutrition-free. Lucky me. Although like most people I didn't care for diet drinks in the beginning, I found a way and now consume diet drinks virtually exclusively. Cold deadens the taste buds (which, coincidently, is a primary reason that American beer is served icy cold). So, my advice is to pick a diet drink that is similar to your normal choice. Ice down a couple of 12 packs until they are just above freezing. Wake up on a Saturday and start chugging. By noon you won't realize the difference. Hope this helps, Jim
Get yourself a quart (or litre) of orange juice. Get a glass and mix apple + grapefruit juices. I haven't drunk soda for years and I certainly don't miss it. Jeesh, what's wrong with you kids?
If you really need a kick, get some 70%+ dark chocolate. This being \. that's the closest to sex you'll ever get. <VBEG>
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
ok. I helped you enter the code. It was my only attempt which did NOT print back to the log below.
And apparently I closed a door, or opened a door. And once I got a little grid.
And 01100110 is ascii for f. 01100110 backwards is 01100110, wich is also F.
NOW WHAT?
Is this one of the Stanford-esqe Games? Or are you just a fan of Lost? Wait, you're in New Zealand? Or Malaysia? And what is "Cross-correlation rate restraints".
Dang. HELP ME OUT HERE.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
I recommend pure, unadulterated cocaine. It's great for parties as well as programming marathons.
Limina.Log
Really, I just drink water or unsweetened tea. Much less sugar than soda, and as a bonus, no caffiene.
If you have access to a refrigerator, you can make a jug of iced tea. Brew it with hot water but use a few more teabags than you would for the same volume of hot tea. Don't put it straight into the fridge while it's hot - let it brew until it cools to room temperature before refrigerating, or it is likely to go cloudy. This has a set-up time of about two hours, but is then handy for days. (or the rest of the day, i guess, if you drink THAT much tea.)
The 2-qt plastic jugs with a rotating lid work really well. So does brewing with Earl Grey teabags or throwing a peppermint herbal teabag in with the bunch of regular ones.
Drink water. It quenches your thirst, is good for you, and is very easily available.
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Ground up and in the freezer.
Sorry, bad joke.
To get back on topic, tried as I might, I cannot stand coffee unless it's "sissified", that is, lots of sugar and milk added. But at that point its like drinking a cup of sweetened creamer packets.
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Its not as convenient as soda (not available in restaurants, and I can't seem to find it pre-mixed), but I highly recommend Sugar Free Tang. Made to recipe it is extremely close in flavor to the real thing, and its like 30 calories for 3 quarts.
Granted, I had to invest in a two gallon container (honestly, 3 quart pitchers don't exist), but it was worth it.
As for the caffeine, nodoz pills replace it just fine for those rare occasions I need it.
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
Enough said ..
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I've never been a big fan of diet sodas, but I discovered that the additional flavors in diet cherry coke and diet vanilla coke (now diet black-cherry vanilla coke) help mask the "diet" flavor that I disliked so much. Now I can happily gulp down 6 in rapid succession, and no longer worry about the calories. Besides, it takes years to develop cancer.
Try grape or cranberry juice (normal or 'light') diluted 4x or 5x with water. Tastes a lot better than water (not as bland), quenches thirst a lot better than juice (far less sweet), has low sugar content, and keeps you hydrated. ..bruce..
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
for caffeinated, bottle conditioned beer.
caffeine for those long coding hours
Bottle conditioned to ferment out every last sugar molecule.
A refreshing flavour hit that carries all the two of the three vital food groups that a hard working geek needs (caffeine and beer).
Ok, so we can't quite get it in the form of a pizza yet, but our teams of dedicated researchers are working on it day and night.
I drink to make other people interesting!
Where exactly do you find soy milk that isn't loaded in sugar?
Seriously. Check the label sometime.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Gulthek notes that tea is pretty quick and lets you select how much (if any) sweetness to have. One thing to note is that green tea is chock full of healthy stuff. The list of health benefits on that page goes on and on. Of the varieties of tea, green is the least processed which is usually a good indicator that it's the most healthy. Start off by getting some prepackaged stuff just to see if you could like it. If so, then you can start doing your own thing and getting some good-quality stuff.
I know you were asking for a soda substitute that isn't too bad for you. This is one substitute that is actually good for you. Give it a try. You might really like it.
GMD
watch this
If you've got fridge access at work, bring in some milk and one of those 1-litre containers of chai concentrate. Mix them half-and-half and microwave yourself up a cup when you're having a caffeine craving. This stuff is really delicious, and mildly filling which I also enjoy.
Some brands are sweet (eg. Tazo, the brand Starbuck's carries), and some are not (eg. Oregon Chai's semisweet variety.) There's a variety of good ones out there.
Crystal Light makes little one-serving tubes that work well with a 16oz bottle of water, and I have a variety of those sitting in my cube at all times. After I drink my bottle of Mountain Dew in the morning, I hit the water cooler in the break room, fill the bottle with water, and optionally add Crystal Light to the mix. It isn't bad, really. :-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Water FTW.
Apart from being good for you, I find that drinking a glass of water between coffees/cokes actually extends my caffeine buzz. Too much coffee/coke dehydrates you and actually makes you sleepy as a result.
I used to drink the regular stuff too, I thought diet tasted too chemical, and it didn't have a good flavor. Then I went home from college for summer, and my parents had decided to switch to diet soda, and as such that's all the soda there was in the house. I could have bought regular if I wanted, but I decided that drinking the soda my folks bought was good enough rather than spending my own money on more soda. Three months later when I returned to college, I had found that I lost all taste for the regular stuff. Regular mountain dew tasted like drinking a bottle of pancake syrup at that point, it was just too sugary. I also found it got me to enjoy other products with sugar substitute. I now put splenda in my coffee, and low calorie ice cream. I'd suggest just buckling down and drink only diet soda for a month, and you may just get to liking it.
This is a truly excellent drink. It is 100% calorie free. Sodium free too. It is very low on additives and preservatives -- just trace amounts of chlorine (to kill any bugs) and flouride (which actually strengthens your teeth!). You can drink as much as you can stand, without any ill effects -- no caffiene to make you crazy, no fizzy stuff to rot your teeth. If you drink it cold, it's actually calorie-negative! And not only is it cheap, but you can even get it free -- the stuff literally falls out of the sky! You really can't beat it. Give it a try some time -- you'll like it!
Get out a measuring cup and measure out eight (8) ounces of water in your favorite glass. Plan on drinking ten of those a day. For my glass it turned out to hold 16 ounces, so that means five glasses for me. I start right out in the morning.
Find a good source for DISTILLED water. And stick a large container of it in the fridge so it will be cool. Mine has a handy spigot. Not mineral water. You will be amazed how quickly you start to prefer PURE water over anything else.
I started doing this and gave myself one (1) "luxury" can of pop for dinner. But now that I have been continuously meeting my water quota I NO longer feel chained to soda pop.
This coupled with my move to a low sodium diet has done much to improve my health. While some may think that a move to diet soda may be better, it really is not. Our bodies were designed for WATER. Plus diet soda has a higher sodium content than regular soda.
I really think this is two areas to that someone can improve their health (along with more green stuff and exercise) would be more water and less sodium (aka salt). The USDA recommends 2400 mg (which is more than the British 1600 mg!) of sodium per day. A single hamburger can have as much as 2800 mg! I aim for 700-1000 mg per 24 hours. Salt should not be completely avoided, as our body needs it (it's in our sweat/tears). Less salt means you will be less tense and breathe easier (your heart works less hard). Possibly even more than dumping the caffiene (though that's a really good idea too).
If you are counting your sodium, eating well will become natural and less hard. Fix your own food. You will find all prepared food to have LOTS of sodium. They stick it in the food to improve taste and you will buy it. The supermarket is like a giant salt lick.
If you need to drink something, God created water for a reason. If you want something a bit more tasty, try milk, milkshake, youghurt, juice, smoothie, or something else that's healthy (if it's with added sugar, it should not be considered "healthy"). They all taste better than coke, and can work as a small meal-replacement too, so why you'd even consider coke, is beyond my understanding.
Now, get some exercise. By all means, reduce your unhealthy (USian-level) sugar intake too, but if you worry about it, chances are it's because you are getting fat. Active people don't get fat by eating sugar. They burn it away, just like anything else they eat. The two most effective exercises for removing fat is using your bike to work, and using your bike back from work.
And instead of all that caffeine, please consider eating a healthy breakfast. It will keep you awake longer. Not that coffee is such a bad idea (in moderation), but your post didn't exactly sound like you did anything in moderation.
Buy a home soda maker from Soda Club. It's basically a plastic case around an aluminum CO2 canister. There's a good selection of flavors with near-replacements for the big ones: coke, dr pepper, mountain dew, root beer. You screw the bottle of tap water on, press the button a few times until it buzzes, unscrew it, and pour in a capful of syrup.
I bought one because the drinks are flavored with Splenda and have 1/3 the calories. The regular ones still have some high fructose corn syrup in. Because you're mixing the syrup and selzter yourself you can adjust the carbonation and sweetness to your taste. I make it quite a bit less sweet and with less carbonation than store-bought, and I've been really happy with it.
There is also a cost savings argument. I haven't sat down and checked it myself, but it's on the site somewhere. Cheaper or not, I'm glad I don't have to deal with recycling two-liter bottles and aluminum cans all the time. Although I mostly drink the diet mountain dew flavor, it's nice that I can make some root beer, orange drink, or something obscure when I feel like it.
Anyway, I love the thing. But let me assure you they are not kidding when the warning says to add syrup only after carbonating the water. God help you if you put any syrup in first. You get a real nice soda fountain when you unscrew it to the great and undying hilarity of everyone around.
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
Any of these would make a good pick-me-up.
"This message is composed of 100% recycled electrons."
To paraphrase: "I want to drink sugar free soda, but not diet soda."
I think you're pretty out of luck there.
I recommend Splenda based soda. I find it much more sugar like than Aspartame based soda. I drink a brand unfortunately named "Waist Watcher". They have a decent selection and taste pretty good but they are also caffeine free so you are out of luck if you are looking for a caffeine source.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
I know your concerns. For years I was drinking diet coke. More and more and more. I'd go through case after case, just pouring it down my throat. I was having heart palpitations (aspartame), I ate everything in sight and was gaining weight (aspartame, an appetite stimulant, ironically enough), and I kept having to "up my dose" to stay level. I got to the point where, one day, by noon, I'd had four two-liter bottles and I still wasn't at 100%. I realized something was wrong.
So I went cold turkey. For three agonizing weeks I weaned myself off of the foul stuff. I couldn't stay up past 3pm. I was shaking, sweating, the headaches were unbearable. It's a good thing I was working at a startup where I could keep my own hours.
Finally things seemed to level out, but I wasn't happy with my mental energy level. I switched to coffee. At that point, just plain old Maxwell House. Boy, what a difference that made. And I wasn't having any of those other ill effects. I lost weight, my alertness improved, my heart settled down...
Now I get good beans from Trader Joe's and grind them myself for use in a really good Krups coffee maker. I put just a tiny bit of organic sugar in each cup, which I have only one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. I've been at this for about seven years now and I've rarely upped my intake, usually only for especially hectic deadlines. And I can tell you that missing a few days of coffee is nowhere *near* as bad as missing a few days of diet coke.
Do yourself a favor. Just get used to brewing some good coffee.
vk.
Water actually tastes pretty good and is refreshing. I used to drink two liter bottle of Mtn. Dew at a time, but now I simply drink water all the time and have a soda once every few months.
I do like the sound of the Switch mentioned in a post elsewhere - basically real juice, just carbonated.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Like you, I never cared for diet soda. Then I developed Type II diabetes and had no choice. I soon learned to love Hansen's diet sodas. All Handen's sodas use all natural flavorings and no coloring. The diet ones all use Splendra for sweetining, and that's my preferred non-sugar. They have a great taste and zero calories. Alas, they also don't use caffine, but you can't always have everything. If you have to drink a diet soda, I reccoemend theirs. If you don't need a diet soda, try their regular mixtures, they're just as good.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
I've been trying to cut back on my sugar intake lately, and am interested in what some of you drink that isn't loaded down with the sweet stuff...
Listen (while this sounds like a flamebait) but for centuries humans have been drinking one drink extensively and all other life forms still do. It's good old H2O. There is nothing that beats it and it is the best drink you can have and it is available readily!!
CmdrTaco's drinks - video proof below (I am not kidding!!)
3 537170629
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=680715948
Video Duration: approx 4 mins 44 seconds.
I agree with many of the previous posters...tea is great. I've always liked tea, but have only recently made it my primary beverage. It's really versatile. I'd get some white tea, green tea, and black tea (in ascending order of caffeine content) and decide which flavor/strength suits you (I generally drink green tea with occassional cups of white and black teas). I prefer my tea straight with no additions (don't dump sugar in your green tea unless you're in Morocco), but you can add many things if you like sugary drinks...
But I looooove having Schweppes tonic water straight (w/o the vodka) as a soft drink. It has great taste (its a little bitter). And I do not think it has much sugar. Also it is very highly carbonated which has a nice refreshing effect.
I dont mind having it with vodka either but the question concerned soft drinks.
But make sure you get the Schweppes. The canada dry tonic is not nearly as good.
It amplifies the sweetness in any food or drink. http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/miraclefruit.html
I've gotten off regular sodas now, and stick to the diet ones to keep my weight under control. I find the flavored diet sodas to be rather appealing, as I can drink them without a guilty conscience and switch tastes for variety.
Diet Cherry Coke (with or without Vanilla) is nice, but for my money nothing beats Cherry Diet Pepsi. Diet Coke/Pepsi with Vanilla is also good, and I'll occasionally go with the lime-flavored ones. There's also Diet Mountain Dew Code Red, but that's just near impossible to find...
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
I'm looking at one right now, and I don't see Splenda ("sucralose") anywhere on the ingredient list. I see NutraSweet ("aspartame") near the top of the list; and waaay down near the bottom (just above caffeine) is aspartame's synergistc boyfriend: acesulfame potassium. Unfortunately, too much aspartame gives me a wicked headache, so while I like Coke Zero, I won't be drinking it in quantity any time soon.
There is a Diet Coke made with Splenda; I like it, and it gives me no head pain, but it seems to be becoming harder and harder to find. I suspect Coke is preparing to phase it out as a failed experiment.
You might want to try the Select brand of bottled flavored/carbonated waters sold at supermarkets. The BF swears the white grape soda tastes like the real deal, but w/o the calories. Oh and they're fairly cheap too. And yeah, cutting down those portions goes a long way.
I was going to write about this, but you beat me to the punch. My gf got me into vitamin water a couple weeks ago. The different flavors have different vitamins in them, so there's quite a variety. I haven't seen the website yet (going to check it out now) but the humor on the bottles is pretty good as well. We pick them up at the local grocery story in the water section.
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Sugar Free Bawls and Buzz Water. Check out ThinkGeek.
Thread over.
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Get some sparkling mineral water, toss some ice in a tumbler, put about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ginger in it, then pour in the bubbly water.
Delicious. Has a nice ginger bite, but not sicky sweet like gingerale.... and even makes the tummy feel good. No calories. Good for you.
need caffeine? Fine - drink this and take a freaking caffeine pill.
This space available.
Though, you'll have to avoid the fancy-shmancy latte's and mocha's. A regular cup of Joe and a teaspoon or two of sugar give me all the caffeine I need -- at least until the next cup. =)
I used to drink 3-4 20oz Pepsi Ones per day, but I gave up soda for lent. Now, my routine is 5-6 cups of green tea before lunch and 2-3 64 ounce tumblers of ice water after. Haven't gone back to soda since and haven't missed it, either.
I just drink bottles of high fructose corn syrup. It's a little hard to get used to at first, but I eventually weaned myself off of solid food.
One of the truest statements you'll hear in a commercial is:
Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper.
I really like it a lot, but I've always liked Dr. Pepper. The dorky white can is bad though.
Do try this to: one part Diet Dr. Pepper + one part Diet Coke.
Orange juice and apple cider. Both are delicious and healthy.
Dancing may not cause cancer... then again it might, seeing as I am dancing the give-gullible-people-head-cancer-dance.
Come off it. Most of this aspartame-is-lethal crap is due to an internet hoax email and a bunch of unscrupulous "alternative therapy practitioners". Your link goes to holisticmed.com! Funny how it's all "energy flow" and "meridians" and "magnetism" and "special chinese herbs" and "homeopathy" until they want to scare someone off something - then they pull out the list of scary chemical names of poisons, because scared people tend not to engage their brain. Hmm.
Methanol is dangerous because it converts to formaldehyde - but it's funny how both are mentioned; sounds twice as scary that way! (oh, was that the point, hmm?)
Even if aspartame does produce formaldehyde it's not in any great quantity - aspartame works by being about 200 times sweeter than sugar, so only a miniscule amount is required. Even those small Equal tablets are largely buffer compound; if they were just pure aspartame they'd be too damn small to handle. And even then only 10% of that is potentially convertible; but there is disagreement as to whether that really is the end product.
I'm guessing you're cutting back on the sugar because of weight issues. If that's the case then the sugar is not really that bad in moderate amounts. ... fatter ...it
What actually happens if you drink lots of diet drinks containing e.g. aspartame and acesulfame you're filling up but you're not getting the sugar which will make you feel more hunger. So what you usually do is eat something sweet with probably more sugar and fat than what would have been in the drink, and in the end you end up
So you'd be better of drinking the regular stuff in moderate amounts and substituting the excess with the real thing, coffee.
I don't agree on the flavor of diet sodas though, they all taste like shit. As the slogan for Sprite Zero goes (at least in Europe): No sugar, Only full of
It's usually closer to $2.50 a can/bottle where I come from, even more if you buy it at a coffee shop or a bar ... and that's usually an eight ounce can of the stuff.
Virtually nobody orders coffee in less than 12-ounce sizes any more. Compare about $1.60 per 12-ounces of coffee bought in a shop to one can of Red Bull, et al., and you have a beverage that is well over twice as expensive as regular joe.
The main source of the fad for energy drinks is the strength of their marketing, plus the fact that Kids Today (TM) have figured out how easy these drinks are to combine with hard alcohol for a "tasty," goofball-style night of binge drinking.
Have you considered:
Whatever you do, I don't recommend chugging 4-packs of Starbucks double-shot espressos. My friend was so wired he kept a death grip on the steering wheel for 3 hours straight then nearly keeled over from a heart attack.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch.
My favorite caffinated, carbonated soft drinks are Diet RC Cola and Diet Big Red.
Both have splenda instead of Aspertame.
Yea, RC cola is still being sold. I like it much better than Diet Coke with splenda. I buy that sometimes too when the local store is out of RC (they don't give RC much shelf space, and I think a lot of other people around here like it too). With DCwS the Coke people seemed to have rushed it to market without optimizing the taste first.
As for Diet Big Red. That's an acquired taste, but very addicting once your used to it. By the way, try mixing in some Napoleon brandy with Big Red (no, I not suggesting this for during work--I mean at home when partying). It has a strange synergistic effect together.
Coffee I usually only drink in the winter. It's too hot here in Texas to be drinking anything hot. I drink a lot of tea though (or as you northeners call it "iced tea"--like you would serve it any other way).
In addition to making tea myself, I also like Arizona Diet Green Tea. That too has splenda. It can be very economical when bought in gallon jugs at Walgreens or CVS.
100% dihydrogen monoxide. Available most everywhere, often for free.
I hear the government is trying to ban it, though. Something about terrorists using it.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Penny was nickle and dimed and the buck got quartered.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
I like my women like I like my tractors.
I can't get any more specific than that.
Please don't ask me to explain.
So far, my diet is going great. But I had to do something about my Coke intake, and fast.
Diet Coke was what I used for comparison. Terrible... the artificial sweeteners have a metallic taste, so I feel like I'm drinking the T-1000. A little more shopping around, okay.
As for diet sodas, I found that Diet A&W has no detectible (at least, to my palette) artifice in its sweetness. It also has plenty of taste to it. That's my #1 choice for fizzy drinks now. Diet Barq's is close. Both of those are caffiene-free. I'm not sure if you'd consider that a boon or a bane.
If I gotta have the caffiene, Diet Dr. Pepper is the next in line. It comes in both caffienated and non- varieties, and the aftertaste is quite minimal. I noticed it for a week or two, but not anymore.
Unfortunately, some places (such as Subway, a dieter's haven for fast food) have exclusive contracts with Coca-Cola. The only diet drink my local Subway stocked was Diet Coke, ick. I wrote a letter to the manager complementing her store (if you're in Sunnyvale or Mountain View, the best Subway in the area is on El Camino, about a block south of Castro). I also asked if they would consider stocking some alternatives. Coca-Cola produces Minute Maid Light, another good alternative, even if it doesn't qualify as fizzy. They don't produce it in a bottle, though, but Coke Zero seems much more palitable than Diet Coke. It's my least favorite of what I've listed, but your tastes may vary.
For home use, I find that making 2-quart bottles of powdered drinks works well. Crystal Lite is certainly on the top of my list, and Kool-Aid has a number of sugar-free varieties.
Finally, a few companies make individual serving packets of their powdered drink products. I keep in my vehicle a dozen or so tiny packets of Crystal Light. If I'm going into a restaurant that might not serve a paletable diet drink, I bring one in, order water, and put in the powder. You can do the same with iced tea.
Good luck!
I despise diet soft drinks. I HATE TME>. I'm offended when someone offers one to me. But the Diet Coke with Splenda tastes more like regular Cola than anything else I've ever tried.
Maybe you just need to try a few different things until you hit on one that works for you.
I'd prefer to drink some real sugar than an artificial sweetner so usually I only drink diet if there is no regular alternative. We're relatively sure that the only side effect of consumption of sugar is getting fat. We do not yet know long term side effects of artificial sweetners.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
If you need to drink something, God created water for a reason.
;)
Yeah, for martinis shaken, not stirred.
He wants something to drink, not to wash in.
Diet Pepsi tastes fine after a while, and it's cheap and readily available. World-wide, without the parasites. Add a squeeze of FRESH lemon for that extra flavor. Fruit juice has as many calories as soda, and unless it's citris (vitamin C), you may as well have the soda. I like the taste of flavored mineral water, and get the caffiene from coffee and espresso with plenty of sugar and "cream", or Jolt gum.
By the way, I lost 30 pounds in two months after years of getting nowhere dieting. I logged everything I ate, and kept it to under 900 calories. (usually) It was great reinforcement seeing the weight drop off almost every day.. didn't have to eff around with points, special diets, or whatever. I didn't even exercise, though i walked more.
It's real easy to eat healthier when you have to trade off between 1 cup of strawberries or a 1/4 cup of plain white rice. Or a plate of mushrooms vs. an extra 1/2 cup of pasta. Veggie juice and coffee (and fruit and yogurt and nuts) instead of a (grande) mocha. A hamburger without cheese or mayo, OR a third of those fries on the side. Spices and non-calorie sauces help a lot. I ate well, and savored everything. But whatever, if YOU track those calories, YOU'LL make your own choices.
It worked only if I ate every few hours. Breakfast (150), lunch (250), snack (75), dinner (300), snack (75) + some here and there. And as long as I figured out the calories for everything I ate. (Though I didn't bother writing down leafy veggies)
I've kept it off 6 months now, and I'm on the last notch of my belts (down 3 notches), so there!
The health risk appears to be 1) if you don't have the weight to lose or 2) if you go much longer than a month then you might get ??? stones. (In the interests of Full disclosure.)
Good luck!
Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.
And probably my boy bones too:v erages.shtml
http://vitacorp.icthus.net/articles/carbonated_be
http://www.drdonnica.com/faqs/00005211.htm
And just generally bad:
http://www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy/index.html
For those too busy to follow the links: caffeine consumption causes more calcium to be excreted; carbonated water is acidic and bad for your teeth; fizzy drinks have displaced milk in our diet => increased bone fractures in girls.
If you do them chemistry, it works out that a 1 Lr diet drink has SEVEN times the recommended daily intake of methanol. 1 can therefore exceeds it.
I bet it also doesnt mention that if you heat a diet drink to > 30 degrees C then it breaks down into methanol before you even drink it. You are drinking poision.
Ever since I stopped drinking this shit I have felt better in every way. I can concentrate more. My migraines have stopped. Have I put on weight? Nope.
V8 actually meets your requirements. It's mainly tomato juice and has other vegetable juices mixed in, and it comes in a can. Very little sugar! Of course it does have super-high amounts of sodium. Seems like nothing tastes good without having something that's bad for you in it.
Water's more expensive than soda.
Maybe if you drink really cheap soda and really expensive water.
Among the brands of water I've bought recently, none has been more than $5 for a 24 pack of 16oz bottles, and even that is at the high end, as most seem to be more like $4. On top of that, some brands are 20oz instead of 16oz.
Soda, on the other hand, is at least $6 for 24 12oz cans.
At least in my situation--and that of many, many others I'd assume--water isn't even close to "more expensive" than soda.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
Get yourself a kettle {NB, this will need a supply of about 10 amps; and if you're outside the UK, it will have to be earthed [if you're in the UK then it already is earthed]}, a filter jug, a china mug {with parallel sides or a temporary narrowing just below the mouth}, a steel teaspoon with the stiffest shank you can find, some teabags and some full-cream milk {not skimmed, not semi skimmed, it must be blue top for the authentic taste}. The milk must be as close as possible to 0 degrees and as far as possible from its expiry date.
Pour one litre of filtered water in the kettle. This will make up to three cups of tea {a standard mug holds 250ml but you should never empty the kettle completely}. Start the kettle boiling.
Whilst the kettle is heating up {use the formula: time in seconds = ([100 - T] * 4.17 * V) / P, where V = volume of water in litres, P = power of heating element in kW and T = initial temperature of water}, place a teabag and a stiff-shanked teaspoon in a china mug. This should ideally have a wide base, then a constriction before belling out; this shape works to minimise evaporative cooling losses and hence maintain OST {optimum sipping temperature} as long as possible. Failing that, a traditional, parallel-sided mug can be used.
The very instant the kettle boils, pour about 200ml. of boiling water, as close as possible to 100 degrees, over the teabag. Leave alone for 15 seconds, then begin mashing the hell out of the teabag with the spoon. Keep going until the tea stops getting any darker. Finally, crush the teabag hard between the bowl of the spoon and the wall of the mug to remove as much liquid as possible, and hike it out. It's biodegradable and can be composted.
Replace the spoon in the mug {it's acting as a heatsink} and add about 50ml of ice-cold milk to the tea. Stir immediately. Remove spoon and sip gently. Feel sensation as though you are receiving kind words and a hug on a tropical beach with crystal-clear water and silver sands and everything is generally all right with the world or better.
NB: Add more cold water to the kettle as soon as possible after boiling. This will cool it down, so slowing the rate of heat loss and minimising TTNM {time to next mashing}. Don't keep the filter jug in the fridge, you're already paying to heat it, you don't want to pay to cool it so you can heat it more.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
V-8 is a great replacement for a soda. Only trouble is, it tastes awful when it's warm. Hope your cube's near the office fridge. Anyway, I've been trying to shape up my diet lately, and I'm amazed at how much better I feel, despite the occasional pangs when I drive past a Rally's. Here's a typical day:
Breakfast: Fried egg on whole-grain toast with Trader Joe's red pepper sauce. V-8 cut 50/50 with water. (Otherwise it's too thick for a first-thing-in-the-morning drink.)
Mid-morning snack: Banana, fruit cup, or applesauce. Random juice if necessary.
Lunch: Subway club or whatever, with spinach instead of lettuce. (If they try to upcharge you for putting spinach on a sandwich, tell the manager you won't be back, and find a different store. Only about 10% of them do this.) Use pickles or peppers for flavor instead of dressing. Gatorade or more juice.
Afternoon snack: Carrots and V-8. Bonus: Most folks won't steal these from the office fridge.
Dinner: Whole-wheat spaghetti, random sandwich, or baked potato. Skip the butter and sour cream on the spud, use ketchup instead. It's zero-fat, and face it, potatoes and ketchup were made for each other. Steamed broccoli, green beans, or something of that ilk. Fruit juice or home-made lemonade.
Midnight snack / handy meal: Chef Boyardee low-fat ravioli. Bonus: You can eat the low-fat version when it's cold, and you won't get that slimy film on the roof of your mouth that you'd expect from the regular stuff.
Try this for a week and see how you feel. It's essentially zero fat, except for traces in the lunchmeat and pepper sauce. You can avoid high fructose corn syrup entirely by opting for 100% fruit juice, by mixing your own lemonade with cane or beet sugar (or honey), and by choosing Gatorade over Powerade. I like to keep a box of Capri Sun or similar in the car for convenience (they don't explode when they freeze), but all the pouch drinks seem to be sweetened with HFCS. Use sparingly, I suppose. Opting for peppers instead of dressing is an incredibly simple way to cut your fat intake. Try biting the bottom off a Salonika pepper and dribbling the juice over your next Greek salad, in lieu of the usual dressing. I've been using that Trader Joe's red pepper sauce in place of mayo on sandwiches, and my only regret is that I didn't discover it years ago. It's very mild, but adds a welcome richness of flavor.
I've been following this diet, more or less, since September. I'm back into my high-school jeans!
If none of the sodas taste good, have you considered changing to pure water? I might sound like a health nut, but you really can do without all the additives. Thirsty? Drink a pint of cold water, works really well. Not thirsty? Just don't drink anything. And without anything to drink, snacking becomes difficult. Another big step towards a healthier life :-)
because it's almost impossible to make it bitter.
You don't need to let the boiling water cool down at all.
And you can just leave the teabags in the container.
And it is tolerant of water that isn't hot enough.
Prince of Wales (the tea, not the person) stands up to all manner of abuse.
Get a six of seltzer and you're never without a fizzy lift! Sugar-free, but with the bubbles you secretly crave!
The best Splenda products seem to come from the 7-Up company: The Diet Rite series has no sugar, no calories, no caffeine. It comes in Orange, Raspberry, Cola, Strawberry-Kiwi, Black Cherry, and my personal favorite White Grape, which makes a good mixer. :-D
Their Diet 7-Up is likewise good tasting, and also a good mixer.
But their best product is likely Light Hawaiian Punch, which fully rocks in its own right. And it's the best mixer... with vodka, rum, blackberry merlot, or most anything else you throw at it!
Which reminds me: I was up late last night; I'd better grab a pair for work.
You are only partially right about pointing to the water as a source of taste-differences. The main kicker, in my (extensive) experience is the choice of artificial sweeteners and their ratios, which will vary according to local laws and thresholds - and possibly other reasons.
For some (to me) unknown reason, German Diet Coke contains cyclamate (E 952), in addition to the usual acesulfame potassium and aspartame cocktail (and thus tastes like crap). Cyclamate was banned in the US in 1969 after studies found that it caused testicular cancer in mice and despite subsequent studies that found no such relationsships, the FDAs admition of same and repeated attempts by Abott Labs to get it reapproved, it is still banned - and according to Wikipedia, the latest petition is not being actively reviewed by the FDA.
So, while I've also heard the "all the coke syrup comes from the US" reasoning before, it's clearly not the whole story - at least for DIET Coke.
If you suppliment your caffeine needs elsewhere, you can drink all the soda you want. That way you avoid the threat to your kidneys or panic attacks. By 'elsewhere,' I mean caffeine can come in tablets, teas, or coffees... or instead use natural stimulants like mints.
So do yourself a favor and separate your stimulants from your sodas. Or as someone else here suggested, give water a try... it's amazing. Slimming, reduces asthma symptoms, it does the body good. You can hardly get too much water, unless you wash out salts, so suppliment water with food!
Just like the Coffee Maker, they now sell a Tea Maker (specificly with Iced Tea in mind). They cost about $20 and come with two pitchers. Brew with 2 - 3 tea bags cut it with water or ice, and just a tad of splenda to take the bitterness out of it. Some times instead of splenda, I'll add a little juice (lemonaide, cranberry, grapefruit) to sweeten it instead.
The Man in Black
I applaud you on your move before diabetes sets in like it did me - I used to drink several cans of regular cola everyday and Im sure it didn't help prevent me getting type 1 10 years ago (though some may say that proves nothing). Like you at first I found diet drinks to have a bad aftertaste but I soon got used to it and now on the rare occaision a McDonalds monkey serves me the wrong cola I now find it cloyingly sweet. Pepsi Max is my recommendation, all taste, no sugar - just as it says on the can. (IDNWFP BTW).
I also favor Splenda over Nutrasweet (Aspartame) every time. Which do you prefer, sucralose's looser bowel movements, or aspartame's headaches? The U.S. Air Force tells pilots not to drink Nutrasweet/Aspartame, as it slows the responses of their nervous systems.
I don't think you should bother with looking for another 'drink' until you really can just appreciate the value AND taste of just pure water.
Now, that second part can be really hard if you don't want to pay for it or don't have decent, nay, very good drinking water from your city.
I lived in Baton Rouge, LA for 11 years and they, by far, had the best drinking water of any place I've visited. But, I've had the bottled spring water from about 65-80 miles east of there, from Abita, LA: absolutely the best bottled water I've ever tasted.
My final arguement is that you really should enjoy drinking that which makes up 70%-80% of your body mass.
I have the same type of weaknesses when it comes to soda: I've tried to drink diet (the only flavor I can even tolerate is Diet Coke w/ Lime...every thing else just tastes crappy to me), but regular is just better-tasting to me.
Part of the problem of curbing your intake of soda is to simply break yourself of the habitual routine of drinking it all the time: if you simply find ways to keep yourself from buying the stuff (don't take any spare change to work so you can't raid the soda machine - if you get the stuff for free, you'll have to be more creative...), it can go a long way toward helping you reduce your intake.
The other part is breaking your body's addiction to it. Not long ago, my wife and I gave the South Beach Diet a try. What I found when on that diet is that the key to curbing your soda (and overall sugar) intake is breaking your body's addiction to sugar. Once you break your sugar addiction, it's all too easy to stop drinking soda completely (diet or otherwise). The bad part is that you have to get pretty extreme if you go this route (for South Beach, you basically go "low-carb" for a couple weeks, cutting almost all your sugar intake - but your sugar cravings are usually gone after only a few days). When doing this you'll get a rather severe drop in blood sugar. For me, this tended to have a similar effect as caffiene withdraw: I was very lethargic for a few days, but once I got past the initial "low sugar shock" I was fine.
I'm not suggesting that you take the extreme path like South Beach, but the key to breaking these type of bad habits when it comes to food is understanding why you tend to eat/drink the things you do in the first place.
I don't know where you live.
If you are in eastern upstate New York, or western Massachusetts or southern Vermont, then Stewart's is your friend, and you can't go five blocks without passing one of their stores. I drink a lot of their store brand diet tea when I don't have time to brew my own. It has zero calories, and meets your "bottled convenience" and "contains caffeine" requirements, not to mention that it is cheaper than a lot of other options.
www.wavefront-av.com
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
When I was in the service, we just called them hookers ;)
Specialization is for insects. -Heinlein
...and Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke be thy name.
Laugh all you want about the modifier list - whereas most varieties of 'Diet $FLAVOR Cola' taste somewhat...off... this stuff is absolutely amazing.
My number one crush used to be Diet Dr. Pepper, but I..
...well...
...no, I have to say it. I'm ready to say it:
As much as a man can be gay for diet soda, I am totally gay for Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke.
may future googles have mercy on me for this...
One man's constant is another man's variable.
It wasn't long ago that the sickening sweetness of canned beverages just got too much for me, and I gave up on them entirely. I replaced them with drinks like coffee (well, lattes) and orange juice, but after a while of this, my digestive intolerance returned, and I've been unable to drink either of those as much as I used to.
Lately, I've started drinking gatorade. Six bucks for a pack of six bottles, tastes good but not too sweet, easy to drink, convenient size, and great after a run. Give it a try.
I've been a Coca-Cola junkie since my dad dipped my pacifier in it as a toddler. I drink between 5 and 10 cans a day. I just switched to Diet Pepsi a couple months ago, for healthy and convenience reasons since the lady drinks the same stuff, we can easily stock up when it's on special.
:D
To tell you the truth, I don't care anymore. In the first week or two, yeah there was something "missing", probably the sugar ups and downs that were making me feel crappy in the first place. I'll admit the diet stuff isn't as rich, that's a given, but really once you get used to it, the real pop seems almost TOO rich. My concession is that if I'm dining out, I'll usually have regular pop, almost as a treat.
I came to the conclusion that the only reason I drink pop instead of plain old water is because I'm used to tasting something, anything; also partly because water doesn't come in a convenient can. You could replace Pepsi with Sprite, or Dr Pepper, even the cheap store brands. Most of the times when I'm drinking, I don't care what I'm drinking, my attention is focused on the computer or TV, or whatever work I'm doing. On the other hand, if I'm at Denny's stuffing my face, I want the richest, sweetest, most invigorating drink possible, so I get a bigass Sprite with cherry syrup
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Given the parent's comment about "cheaping down the ingredients", it's less likely that they used higher-end ingredients (Ace-K to replace some of the aspartame - BTW Aspartame=NutraSweet), but used a lower-end ingredient instead.
Did you know that the Diet Coke and (I believe) Pepsi served in restaurant soda fountains is usually not the same as that sold in stores? In many cases it's actually sweetened with saccharin, and that stuff DOES taste nasty, even to someone who has been drinking diet for over a decade. The Coke Light in the Phillipines may likely have been saccharin-sweetened.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
If you like Coca-Cola, their C2 product isn't a bad compromise between Diet Coke and regular Coca-Cola. It has 70 calories per can. In a taste test, the difference is clear. If you're passively drinking it while working, you probably won't notice the difference unless you look at the can.
I've never been a big fan of energy drinks, but I've recently switched to Tab Energy (warning, annoying flash) for half my caffeine intake. It's not a cola, but it's got good carbonation and a refreshing taste. It uses sucralose for the sweetener, and only has five calories per can. It's the best low-calorie soda-type beverage I've found.
The way I was able to switch from regular to soda to diet was drinking C2. I couldn't stand diet coke, it tasted empty and metallic. I drank C2 for about a month then tried diet coke again one day. Since I had weaned myself off of the uber-sweetness, it wasn't that bad. Now if I even try regular coke, its feels like drinking syrup. I am almost completely off of sugary sodas and now even C2 is too strong.
The exception to this is Mt. Dew. Diet Mt Dew is the height of nasty, so I sneak a regular one in from time to time.
Employees discoverd and brought in "flavor packets." The first I heard of were Crystal Lite powder packets. They're just the right amount for 16 oz. water bottles, you dump them in and shake up the bottle. All add color, but no sugar, salt or any nutritional value whatsoever. There are also discount ones from Sam's/Wal-mart, but those don't dissolve well in cold water.
Then my manager found Water Enhancers (http://www.watersensations.com/). They mix with the water immediately because they're liquid. They're colorless, but they still add an immense amount of flavor (comparable to kool-aid) and make me feel like I'm drinking a soda w/o the fizz. These also have 0% of everything for nutrition. Nothing added but flavor.
I switched to diet pop using diet mountain dew and diet A&W Root Beer. I used to not be able to stand the taste of diet, especially the after taste. After a week or two, regular pop tasted wrong, and the diet after taste was gone.
Now I prefer Code Red Diet Mountain Dew before 2:00pm and caffeine-free diet drinks such as caffeine-free diet MD or diet A&W root beer after. It helps me sleep if I try not to drink caffeine.
Try diet for a week or two.
What, me worry?
If you put about 1/2 shot of vodka in a can of diet Dr Pepper it tastes even more like regular Dr Pepper. It seems to enhance the sweetness just a touch and mask the diet aftertaste. A very interesting experiment that must be tried. Over and Over.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
If you have not totally given up on diet drinks and you want some caffeine, I recommend Diet Sunkist. I have found Sunkist to be the sweetest, more orangy (least tartly acidic as well) of the diet orange beverages. The diet version is also quite nice. Tastes very similar. It has a nice, balanced flavor, is acceptably sweet, seems more citrus-like, and is caffeinated. Sounds like it meets your needs, assuming you're not turning away from sweet altogether.
Also, you can buy Minute Maid canned diet products. I recommend the Guava Mango. It's diet, not carbonated or caffeinated, but is quite tasty because it does include a smidgeon of real juice. Not 0 calories, but very few.
Lately I've just been drinking a lot of water. I reuse a 20oz bottled water container and just fill it up with tap water. Then I use the little drink packets to add some flavor. Crystal Light has a variety of flavors and dissolve the best, but are the most expensive. I usually just go with the generic "Great Value" brand ones from Wal-Mart but Target also has some variety other then the lemonade, orange, rasberry common ones that Crystal Light and Wal-mart sell.
Apparently in Japan, many foods (including Diet Coke) are sweetened with stevia instead of sugar or aspartame. Stevia is a natural herbal sweetener which is something like 300x sweeter than sugar. Unfortunately, as this article says (http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/food/ste via/index.html), it is illegal in North America as a food additive because the FDA and Health Canada have not yet approved it as such. More information about stevia can be found at http://www.stevia.net/
... a titanic intellect in a world of icebergs...
Water, its what I primarily drink, I prefer it ice cold :) You get used to the clean plain taste after awhile few months. I gave up sodas when I was a teen, because my stomach started to feel like I was having a ulcer. Once you drink water long enough, everything else tastes way too thick and heavy.
But if you must have sugar, try Kern's, they make several unique fruit drinks such as Pear, Strawberry, Banana and so on.
I'm surprised no one mentioned Snapple or Gatorade either. Guess everyone here is a coffee and soda junkie.
nt
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
A fairly large number of people are sensative (in some way) to (many of) the artificial sweeteners. My mother and I both have headache problems with nutrasweet, and I know a couple friends as well who won't (can't) touch the (older, at least) diet stuff.
Honestly though, while soda is a lot of where corn syrup is going (especially if you drink 8 cans a day), if you think that is the only place you've never delt with a mother-in-law who's allergic to corn (in general), or a friend who's seriously allergic to corn syrup. The damn shit is in EVERYTHING in this country. Half the "honey wheat" bread in the supermarket... is made with corn syrup (partially, rather than just honey). All the white is corn syrup. Any sort of candy/storebought sweets? Full of it. Lots of canned things (canned fruit? In heavy syrup? Yep.) use it too.
I wouldn't be surprized if we find out eventually it is (almost) as bad as tobacco in terms of total health impact.
Slashdot Patriotism: We Support our Dupes!
There are a couple of companies making soda that's carbonated fruit juice, rather than carbonated sugar syrup. It's expensive, but it's really good...
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Jeez, it's not hard to get the good taste with the cheap water. We have a faucet-mounted water filter at our kitchen sink at home, and we just keep a pitcher of that going in the fridge. Where I work, I've seen several people that use those pitchers with the Brita filters in the top of them--not hard at all.
It's definitely cheaper because those filters are good for hundreds(?) of gallons of water. I hate seeing all those little plastic water bottles getting thrown away. Get one of those hard plastic re-useable water bottles please, so you can just wash it out every few days and not produce more unecessary trash/recycling.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
Propel is Gatorade's take on the whole flavored water craze. I found it to be quite good for not having much that is harmful in it. It can be a little more pricey than what you're used to, but I feel a whole lot better having dropped soft drinks from my regular diet. It isn't going to have the same amount of flavor you're used to, but on the upside, it will hydrate you, so its likely you'll feel better even if the taste isn't an immediate hook.
I don't generally drink anything sweetened or containing caffeine. If I have trouble
focusing or staying awake in the later morning or afternoon, I either switch to another
project or I get up and take a quick walk around the lab/buiding/whatever to stretch out
my legs. I find that if I change what I'm working on every half hour or so, that I don't
have problems staying focused on what I'm doing.
*sigh* back to work...
If you are an American you drink Coffee.
If you are English you drink Tea.
Anything else and you need to consult page 4,532 of the Manly Man Manual.
A long time ago, I decided to give up on soft drinks entirely. No more Coca-cola, Sprite, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, et cetera. Instead, I would drink only water.
:-(
And you know what? Now I'm able to tell which kind of regular water I'm drinking (any of the 8 brands of mineral/bottled water that are sold where I live, and even tap water from either of the two companies that serve our city). My friends are unable to do so, and the ones that don't believe me have lost money betting they could cheat me on a blind test.
This increased sensory capability has led me as well to discover that premium-grade bottled orange juice (or better yet, self-made) is as delicious a drink as I need. And milk tastes quite good as well. Who needs soft drinks? Not me.
As for "succulent", I rely on cookies, chocolate, ice cream, et cetera... I'm overwwight anyway.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
Are about all I drink during the day. At work we drink water and great espresso, nothing more (there isn't even a soda machine around here). At lunch we have a beer. In the evening I drink mostly water and beer. (Belgium here, lot's of good beers around).
But if you really can't stand coffee, and just have to have a soda, try Diet Rite cola. It's made with Splenda and might have that better flavor you're looking for. Also keep an eye out for Hansens diet sodas. They're also made with sucralose, and come in some unusual flavors.
Proverbs 21:19
I drink the Original V-8 instead of pop now at work. It has 3 servings of vegtables in the can, and no added sugar. If you need it to be smoother, than there's V-8 Go, which incorporates white grape juice.
That's if you can stomach it. I like it luke-warm, as it is not as savoury cold imho.
I vary between fruit juices early in the morning (not punches or such, just unadulterated juices, which are easy to find & cheaper usually, and most specifically the tart ones, cranberry, grapefruit, etc.); a cup of coffee in the am and then for and after lunch iced tea (unsweetened, no lemon) for the caffeine; V8 Juice (vegetable juice cocktail, a couple cans during the day) and icewater with lemon twist (alot of this for hydration especially in the summer. If you need more caffeine add a cup more of the coffee after lunch; but you really don't need that much caffeine; you'll find the good nutrients in the rest of what you drink give you plenty of clear-headed energy, and moderate your appetite as well. It may seem a lot of trouble at first to maintain a variety in your liquid diet and it does at first but quickly becomes easy to manage. It is certainly healthier, and makes the occasional sugary ice cold very fizzy soda extra refreshing.
10 Calories per serving (okay, 20 calories per can), tastes pretty darn good.
h p
http://monster.sponsorhouse.com/product/lowcarb.p
Aspartame, like MSG, is an "excitotoxin", which is increasingly believed to be a very dangerous nurological agent. Getting cancer, maybe, someday, way in the future, isn't that scary... but IMMEDIATE NUROLOGICAL EFFECTS including substantial loss of brain cells (not to mention birth defects in your children) certainly gets my attention.
Let me quote a quick summary from http://www.pamrotella.com/health/excitotoxins.html
"Aspartame (often called Nutrasweet) is a controversial food additive used to sweeten "diet" products artificially. The product has a long history of causing severe health problems. Along with MSG (monosodium glutamate) and MSG-like food additives, aspartame is in a class of compounds known as "excitotoxins". These excitotoxins basically excite brain cells until they die. In other words, each serving of MSG or aspartame has the potential to cause a little bit of brain damage, which becomes cumulative and could eventually lead to Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, or other neurological diseases.
Aspartame is especially controversial, as laboratory tests BEFORE it was approved showed that it caused brain lesions, cancer, death, and a number of other serious health problems. The substance was originally rejected by the FDA, but later Donald Rumsfeld (the current Secretary of Defense) went to work for Searle with the goal of having aspartame approved. Since its approval, brain cancer rates have risen, although a portion of those cases may be due to the explosion of cell phone usage at around the same time. Aspartame is the substance the FDA receives most complaints about, with a range of known side effects including birth defects, cancer, and death."
Someone needs to mention these things before others follow the same uninformed advice I did. Just because companies are allowed to sell you something like aspartame and MSG it doesn't mean that it is safe for you, or that they have your best interests in mind. MSG is getting harder and harder to avoid... this "safe" substance is so safe that companies are HIDING it in almost all foods by using loopholes in product labeling. Just look and see if you have anything (I'm certain you do) that contains "Natural [anything] Flavor", Hydroloyzed [anything], Aspartame, Caseinate, bouillon or Stock, Citric Acid, Malt [extract/flavoring], anything enzyme or protein fortified, Spices, etc. the list goes extensively on.
I've recently started to cut as many excitotoxins from my regular diet as I can (man, it is tough to find anything without them). And I actually feel healthier than I use to (and I thought I felt pretty good before, so this is an interesting thing...)
Give some love to Dr. Blaylock's book.
It's a sweet drink made from black tea, and you can have it iced or hot. Easiest way to try one is to go to Starbucks and ask for a Chai Latte. Don't worry, it doesn't taste like coffee; it actually has a sort of cinnamon taste. And the caffeine is in there.... trust me, I'm a keyboard commando myself. ...
I just said "keyboard commando". You can shoot me now.
I don't drink diet sodas because they all seem to taste like flat, expired Busch Lite that's been in the sun too long, with sugar free carmel or lemon-lime flavoring thrown in. They taste so repulsive to me that I cannot simply drink a case and let that magical "this isn't cow-piss" switch go off in my head, although I have tried.
As a result, I still drink real colas, but in moderation.
However, I did, when hiding in a magical ice-locked land in Norbotten, find a sugar free fruit juice concentrate that tasted good. Not passable, but good. It was called something stupid like Fun Juice or Party Juice or something like that, and was probably aimed at six year olds, but it made a wonderfully tasty beverage, and went great with every liquor but whiskey.
Any Swedes around that know the name of the stuff?
Because computers are boring.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Diet Coke/Pepsi have tasted terrible for so long that "diet" sodas have all been tarred with the same brush. Even the original poster framed the question in terms of hating diet sodas. I tested a lot of the diet sodas available at my local store and eventually found some that I really liked.
Soft drink companies have begun producing diet sodas that are not only palatable, but very close imitations of the original. Drink them for a week or so, and they taste "real" enough to keep drinking. You don't have to gag them down to begin with, either. The general rule seems to be that citrus-containing sodas/drinks do the translation better, possibly because the citrus flavor masks any bitterness of the artificial sweetener.
Diet Mountain Dew flies off the shelves in my area. If there's any kind of sale on soda, it sells out first. Diet A&W Root Beer, Diet Sprite, and Diet Minute Maid Fruit Punch (while not being caffeinated) are excellent, too. Though you might like Diet Dr. Pepper a lot better than Diet A&W.
Which leads to what works for me (techie *girls* aren't nearly as forgiven for getting fat, ahem): Not buying the stuff! If it isn't in the house, you're ten times less likely to eat/drink it--and if you *really* need some, go out and buy one! **ONE, mind you** In other words, put your laziness to work for you. You'll save some pretty serious $$ too. -PKSC
"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going." - Prof. Irwin Corey
HFCS is almost a direct replacement to sugar in many (most?) of today's processed foods, and that is just about everything (breads, snacks, condiments, pop, "juice", etc...). The problem is that HFCS does not cause the body to produce the same levels of insulin, so your body doesn't "register" the same calories that it does with pure sugar.
Having a six-pack of soda/pop/coke/whatever-ya-call-it 30 years ago was virtually unheard of. No one in their right mind would buy a 2L bottle because it would go flat before the kids could get through it. But with the substitution of HFCS, getting through a 2L bottle in a day is no problem (ain't progress great!).
I've become a radical. I've abandonned the soft drink world entirely. I tried diet drinks at first, but then I started drinking water, tea, coffee, milk and more water. I've not missed Coke-a-Pepsi-Co-And-Friends (at least, not their soft drink divisions).
The only problem I run into is when I occasionally find myself grabbing something at a fast food restaurant. I've had to re-train myself that a "value meal" isn't getting as much as possible...it is getting what I want and what I want is a healthy choice. I'll pay the extra $0.25 or whatever for the bottled water or even give up the "package deal" to avoid getting crap I don't need.
It's a simple matter of complex programming.
Try Diet Rite. It's based on Splenda, and tastes pretty good. As a bonus, Splenda isn't synthetic, so it's less likely that someday somebody'll have a reason to say it's cancerous or will make your kids mutants or something.
Diet Rite has a lot of fruit flavors, and their cola flavor tastes as good as Coke or Pepsi.
Lastly, Diet Dr Pepper's not bad, as are the flavored derivatives of it - Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Diet Berries & Cream Dr Pepper, etc).
No, I will not work for your startup
> Actually, fructose is the problem with corn syrup, specifically high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
Way to change the subject, dude. Where did I say anything about corn syrup? In the context of my post, your comment is as wrong/off-topic/FUD as saying "oxygen is bad because it's found in carbon monoxide and ozone". Fructose is just a simple sugar. Don't make the mistake of assuming that Fructose is bad because it's a named component in HFCS. They make HFCS because it's cheaper and sweeter than straight up corn syrup.
Back on my point: Yes, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption is positively correlated with diabetes. But there's a big difference between fructose and HFCS. Fructose is actually considered helpful for diabetics (hint: diabetic cookies and candy use fructose instead of sucrose).
From a diabetic perspective:
Fructose (good) > Sucrose (bad) > Corn Syrup (worse) > High Fructose Corn Syrup (evil)
Over the course of a few years, I reduced and then eliminated both soft drinks/soda and coffee from my diet. Back in the day, I used to drink half a pot of strong coffee and 2 24oz bottles of Pepsi EVERY DAY.
After my dental hygenist explained her suspicion of colas causing tooth decay I decided to really cut down on the Pepsi. Her theory was that some people will sip a bottle of pop/soda all day which constantly "activates" the tooth decay process. True or not, it was decent motivation along with maybe loosing a few pounds. Motivation enough to eventually stop drinking pop/soda completely. I did this over time by changing my behavior. First, stop buying XX-packs of Pepsi at the grocery store to bring to work, then only buy TWO cans from the soda machine per day, then only ONE, etc.
I stopped drinking coffee by getting sick. I was pretty sick and at home for a few days (head cold, I think?) and just stopped drinking it completely. Who cares if you feel *more* like crap when you already feel like crap? I also had heard (again, not sure if it's true) that caffiene slows your metabolism so it's harder to loose weight.
I now drink a lot of water every day. I may have the occasional pop/soda with lunch if I'm out somewhere, but there's no addiction any more. And by occasional, I mean *maybe* 2X a month.
Now I need to figure out a way to apply this to smoking...a *much* more difficult habit for me to break.
I hope this helps, and best of luck!
I spent a lot of time trying different sweeteners, and started using Splenda. The ad hype says "Mad from Sugar". Had to be safe right? Wrong. There have been a growing number of concerns about Splenda's real safety, and what it does to your body. Since I stopped using it, I feel alot better. I avoid anything with NutraSweet in it as well, that hole, I don't like holes in my brain thing, lol. I've switched to Stevia (available at most health food stores). It's alot sweeter than sugar, so you use alot less. No calories of note and minimal problems associated with it.
I'm in the process of putting an article together on sweetners. Heres a link to the raw info I've pulled together so far:
* Think that sweetener is safe? Think again.
* What's this thing called Stevia?
Seems that Coca-Cola Blak has recently arrived in the lower 48. If you like coke and coffee, then you will like Blak. I tried it for the first time recently and was impressed, it's alot better than I thought it would be. It only has 12 grams of sugar per 8 oz bottle, which is quite a lot less than most colas and it packs a pretty good caffine kick.
Personally i drink Nestea
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
You didn't -- directly. You quoted text singing the praises of fruit juices over corn syrup containing drinks, said "mod parent up," and then went on to sing the praises of fructose (as in contrast to HFCS-containing sodas).
Don't make the mistake of assuming that Fructose is bad because it's a named component in HFCS. They make HFCS because it's cheaper and sweeter than straight up corn syrup.
Fructose content is what distinguishes HFCS from regular corn syrup. It comes from converting dextrose in regular corn syrup with enzymes. I don't assume that fructose is bad because it's part of HFCS. I assume that HFCS is bad because of fructose.
The American Diabetics Association would agree with me now too. They have said since 2002 that fructose should be avoided as an added sweetener:
The specific plasma lipid levels they are talking about are triglycerides and LDL cholestorol levels. You can read more about this from a controlled study done in 1983. All of the dangers of consuming corn syrup come from the higher amount of fructose in it without the mediating effects of fiber in fruits. The non-water components of HFCS-55 used in soft drinks is about 55% fructose, 42% dextrose (d-glucose), and 4% more complex sugars. There is no other magical substance that makes it bad.
My post wasn't a non-sequitor. It was a direct rebuttal to your support for corn syrup being bad but fructose not being bad. Incidentally, most diabetic candies and cookies have been shifting to sugar alcohols like sorbitol, manitol, xylitol, etc. Fructose is out.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Punch was mentioned, but it contains added sugar. how about pure juice? orange juice is really good, and cheap when you buy frozen concentrate, and the same goes for most of them.
Unless it's not your thing, try tomato juice (cheap when bought in those giant store-brand cans). It's very refreshing and more than quenching. I drink tons of it, with huge glasses of ice water between them (it's too thick to drink fast when I'm really thirsty).
I also have a thing for soup. On colder days, I'll actually throw bouillon cubes in boiling water and drink just the broth. There is tea at my desk, too. Some tea is naturally sweet and doesn't need sugar. I especially like Zambezi Red Chai tea, which despite the name is not caffeinated.
On hot days, I have some pre-sweetened iced tea syrup in the fridge. I put just a small bit of that in a glass of water ... just enough to make the water not bland. Syrup works FAR better than powder, since it's already in liquid form, and it's as easy as adding cream to coffee; just pour and stir.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Interestingly, orange pekoe is not a flavor, but is a classification of quality of tea - OP being the lowest. Alton Brown goes over it thoroughly in the tea episode of Good Eats.
Of course, if you are using some kind of crazy cold-brew technology you probably aren't that concerned with real tea quality. Which is totally fine, but personally I can't even use bags anymore.
-If
Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
Stevia is wonderful stuff. It's all natural (I've got some growing in my back yard), humanity has centuries of experience with it as a sweetener (some place in South America where it was first discovered by civilization), very sweet and zero calories. You can buy an extract in powder or liquid form to add to any drink. (In Japan they have stevia-sweetened soft drinks, but here the artificial sweetener companies have lobbied to prevent that. Stevia is legal, but cannot be marketed as a sweetener.) But I have been making my own sweetened iced tea. Just fill up a large tea ball with half dried stevia leaves (from your local herb shop) and half of a mixture of green tea and flavorings (I like dried peppermint leaves and sometimes add cinnamon too). Maybe 1/4 cup or so total volume of mixture. This is enough for a 1/2 gallon pitcher. Heat up the water (not quite to boiling) and let the tea steep for 10 minutes or so. I do this at work too, using the microwave to heat up the water. It's a hassle but a pitcher can last me a couple days. And it doesn't taste like a soda but for me it's very satisfying, and I know I'm drinking some of the healthiest substances known. Isn't a longer life worth something? (We'll see how that works out I guess.)
You can experiment with lots of other flavoring herbs, dried berries, dried citrus peels, dried apples and so on if you like a fruity flavor. Or get pre-mixed flavored green teas at some health food stores and herb shops. You can also substitute yerba mate for green tea, but green tea has some caffeine so that can be helpful for a programmer; and I don't like how the mate has so many fine particles that escape from the tea ball and make the tea look murky.
As for carbonated beverages one of the engineers at work runs an honor bar (buys stuff at Costco, keeps a fridge stocked, and has a coffee can to collect money) and something called Talking Rain has showed up. It is a carbonated punch-like drink sweetened with Splenda (there are several flavors). So I drink that sometimes when I want something carbonated.
Diet Rockstar is a particular favorite, and the classic Red Bull diet version is good too. They both lack any chemical diet aftertaste, which I suppose is masked by the taurine and other energy drink components. It should go without saying that both pack quite a caffeine punch as well. Of course, if you can't stand the flavor of this kind of drink, the diet versions won't be any better.
Best to try the diet version of whichever one you like best with regular sugar. For instance, I think the Monster-branded drinks are terrible in both versions, but your tastes may be different.
There are a few carbonated fruit juices out there. One of my favorites is the Knudsen Spritzers. I've only tried the black cherry so far. I found it quite tasty and it claims 100% fruit juice. They have a number of different flavors including a cola and a ginger ale but I don't know what their juice content is.
I was surprised to find out that Diet Mountain Dew contains fruit juice as an ingredient. The taste isn't too bad either.
As far as taste, I generally shy away from the artificial sweeteners but have always found that Diet Dr. Pepper does a good job (in my opinion) in hiding the taste and coming close to the original flavor.
Currently I find myself absolutely loving the new Diet Berries & Cream Dr. Pepper recently introduced. Think of it as a cream soda with just a hint of raspberry.
Brought to you by: "Al"toids - the curiously weird mint.
It's got the bubbles, and the salt.
If you want the sugar and flavorings, you can add them.
Although I must second the value of water as a replacement, I must strongly disagree with the statement of tastelessness. Though water itself may be tasteless, you never get pure water.
What most people object to in water is, in fact, its _taste_. Caffeine, I can take or leave, but I usually go with a Coke at most restaurants simply because their water tastes terrible. At home, it is usually water.
The problem is that there is no standard for the taste of water. Different people seem to like it different ways, and different people can taste the various additives differently. Indeed, even the ionization of water can make a large difference in its taste. I am lucky that, where I am, the tap water after filteration with a good Pür filter is quite acceptable, but I have been places where a filter simply will not cut it.
Further, bottled waters are very definitely not all the same. For instance, I have never yet met a "mineral water" that I have liked. If water is filtered too much, it can obtain a charcoal-like tast or develop a hard quality that clenches my throat after drinking it. Distilled water, for instance, is usually too pure.
Another factor that is often overlooked is the glass the water is served in. Make no mistake, you should _never_ serve water in plastic. Water grabs all of the foul taste of the plastic and everything else that has ever been in contact with it. If you doubt me, go to a restaurant the uses those hard plastic cups for everything and just _try_ to tolerate the water. Nothing is fouler, even straight tap water from downtown Atlanta is not so bad as some of those. A good, clean, thick glass is the only way to enjoy good water. Of course, metal or wood cups can also be good, though they each impart their own flavour into the water. Metal and glass both cause the water to become a little ionized, which is definitely a good thing, IMHO.
If you are in the Atlanta, GA, area, go to R. Thomas on Peachtree Rd. and drink their water. It is exceptional. I do not believe I have ever had water so good as theirs, and I have been known to go in simply to drink water (of course, I always leave a good tip in such a case). Their food is also great, though. I wouldn't recommend skipping out on their cuisine.
The point is, water can, in fact, be an excellent drink, provided that it is served correctly. However, serving it correctly is a very difficult hurdle rarely managed by the average restaurant.
Seán C. McCord
Zippfiz has become my new drink of choice and at $19.95 for a case of 20 at Costco they are pretty cheap too.
http://www.zipfizz.com/
What many of you don't realize is that diet soda is really, really bad for your teeth. The acid erodes your enamel.
Just force yourself to drink the diet drinks for a month, then try a normal soda/pop/etc. You will hardly be able to drink it and will stick to diet if you are anything like me. My weapons of choice. Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Barqs Root beer.
Drink natural juice man. I realize that most juices still have about the same amount of sugar as a soft drink, but you are getting good vitamins and less of the shat that is bad in carbonated crap. I stopped drinking sodas a little more than a year ago and I cannot stand sodas any more. Also, I noticed that I feel better and a number of small health-related things have cleared up for me. Other than that, IS WATER REALLY THAT BAD??? Lazy-asses, water is practically free and it (along with beer/wine) has sustained your ancestors for thousands of years.
For one, no matter what almost every drink you come across is gonna have a good amount of sugar. But there are some light and diet juices that are really great in taste. That is what I found. V8 SPLASH that is all i got to say.
In many Asian food stores you can find green tea that's canned. Some brands still have a little sugar , but much less than pop and generally better for you(also coffee depending on health and intake). Plenty of antioxidants, and chemicals with effects similar to caffeine such as Theophylline. If you don't like the taste of tea (how dare you, just kidding). It's an acquired taste, like tomato juice. If you don't already like it, drink it a few times, and it will grow on you. Sometimes these drinks are expensive, but you can usually find one that's cheap. (Here's a link on the health benefits of green tea http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa0114 00a.htm)
If you like high caffeine count, a bunch of my college buddies love BAWLS, (or the guarana in it according to them) but it's too expensive for them. They go to some Asian food market and buy some energy drink that has just as much guarana, as any American energy drinks, but it's less than a dollar. I'm sorry I don't know the brand name, but you should be able to find some reasonably priced brands.
I tried giving up carbonated drinks, mainly due to my Diet Coke addiction, about a month ago and I did have some success. I stayed away from fizzy drinks for 10 days, but eventually gave up through boredom due to a lack of variety and drinks. I don't drink tea or coffee as I am really offended by their horrible smell, I really don't understand peoples addiction to these substances!
I drank a drink called Oasis (in the UK at least) which is basically a glorified orange squash, sometimes Orange juice, but generally I found the selection to be very bland and very boring. I honestly think that there are some large gaps in the drinks markets due to a lack of variety.
I think next time I give up the Coke I will allow myself to drink fizzys still as the idea of Perrier is a good alternative, although very expensive for what it is.
Price I feel is a big part of the problem with alternative drinks, carbonated drinks are very cheap, yet the alternatives are not - or you get significantly less to quench your thirst.
--MrSwadge
I get mine from a local BP station that also stocks groceries. I've found it sporadically in various places. You can also get it directly from the manufacturer at wwww.waterjoe.com.
Try it -- you'll like it!
DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
If you're lucky to be one of those people who can actually drink the stuff. I have a severe reaction to it, and I found that I'm not alone.
The fact that I'm sensitive to it isn't the problem. The problem is that food companies now feel that - since it's 1,000 times sweeter than sugar - it's better to cut out a lot of the sugar and use sucralose in it's place, because they can use far less of it and get the same amount of sweetness.
Because the FDA mandates that it's okay for everyone to consume it, they can do this at will.
Several times now I've found myself severely ill because I consumed a product with sucralose in it. It's not like it's a 'reduced calorie/sugar' product, I'm talking about things like "Orville Redenbacher's Kettle Corn" or "Nestle Hot Cocoa".
Recently I had a bout with a stomach illness. Whole family was. Picked up some "Hawaiian Punch" (because I love the stuff, and to replenish lost fluids). I was diluting it 1/2 - 1/2 with water.
The rest of the family seemed to be coping with the illness okay, but I was in *awful* shape. And the diarrhea just wouldn't stop. Finally the punch ran out and I was drinking straight water. I started feeling better after that.
My son was the one that pointed out that the HP had sucralose in it. At first I thought he was mistaken (he was five) and read 'sucrose' but sure enough...I had to add my beloved Hawaiian Punch to my 'must not consume' list. It was then I noticed the new labelling: "New Formula! Same Great Taste!"
I know I'm not the only one that has a reaction like this to Splenda/sucralose, there are many cases posted on the 'net. I just wonder how many people DO have a reaction to this crap, but don't know what it is.
Funny how timing is with this post. I am currently trying to drop 50lbs that have found a home on me thanks to a sedentary work and play life. You would never know that one of my hobbies is nutrition.
But... I read through most of the replies and realized that we really are a sad group. Thanks to marketing and science we have become addicts of sugar. Sugar is actually considered more addictive than cocaine or meth, but it's still legal, and I want more than my share. The replacements for sugar will work for a while, but there are issues with putting synthetic materials into your body. There will be some side effects of some kind. Just the way the body works, it can't process synthetics properly.
So my solution is to limit my intake to no more than one per day, and drink a lot of water. The guideline for proper hydration is take your 10% of your weight transfered into ounces. Ex. 269lbs * 10% = 26.9 oz of water.
Seem like a lot? That soda is leaching far more than that out of your body, and you will drink a 32oz (or more!) soft drink when eatting that burger and fries for lunch. I keep a 52oz thermal mug full of ice water on my desk all day long, and without thinking about how much I have drunk, I have to refill it 2x each day. Then I go home and have a 32oz cold cup sitting by me that I am sipping on all night while I chat with friends, watch TV with the wife, or play online. I don't think about the amount of water I drink. I don't force myself to drink it. I just sip when thirsty and drain it without issue pretty easily.
It should be noted that I will try to only drink spring or artesian water, or water run through the Pur filter at home to reduce the exposure to all the other nice little things that are in water. I also carry a "Wellness Wand" from Wellness Enterprises to filter any water at restaraunts. Eventually I would like to have their water filter in the house, but I will start with this.
I am slowly losing the weight, since I still don't exercise, but I am not sick as much as I was.
So my response to the question? Go with the water.
Here I come to save the da... *thud*
I gotta get me a shorter cape.
It's not uncommon at meetings to see at least half the attendees with cans of various flavors of Talking Rain unsweetened carbonated water rather than traditional "soda."
Peach Nectarine is my favorite flavor, but lemon-lime is good, too.
Diet redbull is good, no bad artificail sweetener taste, and you get the caffiene.
When I went on a crash diet and needed to have wings (caffine high)and didn't want to blow out my cash on redbull. I drank Iced coffee with a shot of suger free flavoring, vanilla or hazelnut seemed to work the best, with a little heavy cream or wholemilk.
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
I cut sugar almost 100% out of my diet three years ago and my life has been better overall. But I'm not going to proselytyze about that... My response to your question is that if you really want some good tasting drinks and don't want the sugar (or the detrimental health effects of synthetic artifical sweeteners) then you must forego convenience. What I found is that if I take a natural fruit juice, add some naturally sweet "supplement" (White Stevia Herbal Extract) and us a rough mixture of 1 part altered juice + 2 parts plain seltzer, you get get a much better soft drink. A few tips:
1. Find a good, naturally sweet black cherry juice with no additional ingredients. Use a few drops of almond extract and enough Stevia to make the base mixture almost too sweet. Add the seltzer and you'll have a black cherry soda that rivals even Stewart's.
2. If you can, use freshly squeezed orange juice, strain the pulp and add a 1/4 tsp. of vanilla extract + enough Stevia again to make it almost too sweet. Add the seltzer and you have a very pleasant orange soda.
3. Lime Juice from one lime + enough water to make the difference for 1 part of 3 + 1/4 tsp vanilla extract. Add seltzer and you have "Key Lime" soda. Extra points for using real Key Limes.
Also, if you can find a "fizz saver" you can bottle your concoction for portability. Just remember to have some ice around to complete the experience.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I had the occasion to try C2 (the Atkins friendly version of Coke - half corn syrup, half fake stuff) a while back, and it doesn't seem to have the nasty nutrasweet aftertaste that regular coke does. At half the calories, I don't feel as bad having one during the day. Sadly, they don't have a caffiene free version. BTW - CF Coke tastes amazing like old coke (yes, I've actually had them in close temporal proximity - long, long ago). I cut out caffiene a while back, and found that I didn't really miss it after about three weeks, and didn't have the highs/lows. It also makes it nice to get a "shot" once in a while, though two caffeinated drinks in a morning/afternoon can make my completely unproductive now.
Maybe a test of C0 is in order.
Oh, when I'm thinking about it, I'll make a liter of tea (decaf) in the morning and drink that instead of soft drinks. No sugar, 1/3 of a lemon. I've never been able to do just water for more than actual quenching of thirst, and then I prefer fruit punch gatorade (old school, I know).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
One of my favorite drinks, year-'round, is tea mixed with orange juice. Lately I have been (or rather had been) drinking a bit too much of this stuff, and finding myself unable to sleep; the solution is decaf tea bags! I sense some hackles raised and boiling-oil pots clanking behind the castle walls, so let me preemptively say:
a) Yes, "tea bags aren't tea." I enjoy high-end tea, but sorry, I grew up happy with Liptons and will likely remain so.
b) "decaf tea" from tea bags *certainly* isn't tea. As plain tea, I certainly prefer the taste of actual (not decaffeinated) tea, at least the last time I tried it. However, when I make tea just to cool and mix with juice.
My usual method is to make the tea the previous evening, brewing it 3-5 minutes in glass jars. When it's cool enough, it goes in the fridge. I mix the ingredients just before drinking, and have it over ice.
I usually mix it about 3 parts tea to 2 parts juice ("60/40" if you prefer), but with other types of juice the ratio is probably better half and half (at least that's what I prefer when it's cranberry or grape).
The upshot is:
- either no caffeine, or almsot half the caffeine of full-strength tea
- less sugar than the juice, by half or more (or less, I guess, depending on your mixing preference)
- tasty drink; I crave sweet drinks (rather than just water), and this is sweet enough to stop me from guzzling a coke, at least most of the time.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Or is this a trick question?
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
...which clearly explains why Chinese civilization plateaued for so many millenia, while in Europe, right around the time they started adding milk to Chinese proto-tea (around the late 1600s), Leibniz was in his prime, and was stimulated to generalize from mathematics to the idea of symbolic formal languages, thus developing the basis for both symbolic logic as well as all computer programming languages. On top of that, he invented an automatic calculating machine with much more promise than the Chinese abacus, and these two inventions paved the way for the computer revolution a mere few hundred years later, without which we would not be able to write messages that are delivered instantly to total strangers living on the other side of the world!
Coincidence? I think not!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pour myself a cuppa.
Tea. Water.
Tea. Water.
Tea. Water.
Polluting perfectly good tea with something like milk is worth starting wars over, as you would later discover.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
It tastes a lot better than almost any chocolate milk I've ever had. As a bonus, the mix is so coarse that granules will often float on the top of your glass of milk, making the experience sort of like eating a wet but still crunchy chocolate cookie.
Now, chocolate milk is pretty sugary. Not so Milo. Let's compare a 12 oz. glass of Milo (organic milk with two tablespoons of the mix) with a 12 oz. of your average soda (I'll use Vanilla Coke as a reference).
Your 12 oz. glass of milk with Milo has:
If you are to believe Wikipedia, Milo also has a low GI (about 35), so the energy it delivers is not spiked but rather continuous for a longer period of time.
Swith to water every other drink and add something like this as a replacement. I can tell you that I (and my body) craves Milo much more than any soda. If you need caffeine, adding a bit of black coffee to it does not damage its taste.
I've used this to succesfully wean myself off soda but when I do want some, I rely on the very small (8 oz.) cans that you get if you're on an airplane. I use a tall but thin glass, fill it with ice, and I get two "glasses" out of it. It feels like I've had two big sodas, but I really haven't.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.