Done with Coca Cola!

[Sirrahsim]

I know that this isn't a big deal to most people, but it is to me. I have been hooked on Coca Cola since I was a little kid. I would drink it like water every single day. It is horribly vile stuff for your health and I am pleased to brag that my last Coca Cola was July 15.
I got past the caffeine headaches (misery) after about a week or so and haven't looked back.

For the past few days, I have had a single bottle of coke staring at me from my refrigerator because I planned on making a pot roast (Coca Cola roast is the best!!) It was a temptation, but I didn't cave. I put a pot roast together in the crock pot this morning and decided to take a little sip after I used what I needed in the roast.

It was sickly sweet and vile, I didn't even have the urge to finish the remaining 6 oz or so so I threw it out. I think I am officially off of the Coke!!:D:D:D

[catnapper]

I did the same thing a dozen years or so ago. Now whenever I accidentally take a sip out of the wrong glass, I nearly choke on it!

Water and unsweetened tea for me!

[Laura's Babies]

I haven't drank them in years, we're talking 30 to 40 years. Sodas are not good for you and are part of todays overweight problem. It is my belief that diet sodas are the worst of the lot and cause more problems than the regular ones. There is a LOT to the saying "Why is it you only see fat people drinking diet drinks?" I believe they cause you to gain weight, not loose it.

People do not realize the calories that they DRINK.. I only do water, coffee (unsweetened) and tea, sometimes sweet, sometimes unsweetened (but only 1 galss a day of the tea and not every day)

Remember this, the more sugar you take in, the more you crave.

[Hellow]

I drink Coke and most all sodas, and Sweet Tea, and i am actually quite a bit underweight :eek:.

[RICHARD]

Water and unsweetened tea for me!


IU cut waaaaay back on my soda drinking....now it's a treat! I find that flavored seltzer waters are better for my thirst!

I like Brawndo too!

[Catty1]

Reggie - you are taking in a LOT of caffeine, and it's a diuretic! Wouldn't surprise me if you are dehydrated. About 70% of North Americans are, and don't even know it.

Plus, all the caffeine can artificially raise your metabolism, as it's a stimulant. Maybe try easing down to very little caffeine, as this can really mess up your health (for one, your heart would be beating faster than it really should be).

Look up 'caffeine' on Google and see what you find out.:)

[AllAmericanPUP]

I do my best not to drink soda. I usually only drink soda when i'm at a restaurant and they dont have sweet tea. and at home I usually drink water

[moosmom]

I used to drink Diet Coke all the time. I have one every once in a while if I dine out. But for the most part I now drink only water and one cup of coffee a day.

My best friend is hooked on Tab. She tried quitting but the headaches were horrible.

Did you know that if you scrub your tires with it, it gets them sparkling clean. Can you imagine what it does to your stomach???:eek:

[Daisy and Delilah]

I am hopelessly addicted to diet Mountain Dew. I wonder if I can ever stop. CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE KICKED THE HABIT!!!!!

[Hellow]

I used to drink Diet Coke all the time. I have one every once in a while if I dine out. But for the most part I now drink only water and one cup of coffee a day.

My best friend is hooked on Tab. She tried quitting but the headaches were horrible.

Did you know that if you scrub your tires with it, it gets them sparkling clean. Can you imagine what it does to your stomach???:eek:

The lining of your stomach is powerful enough to repel your stomach acid, which is strong enough to burn through solid steel. Tab aint nothing compared to that! lol

[Scooter's Mom]

In May 2001, I woke up one day and grabbed my morning coke like always. EWWW! It tasted terrible, like acid. I poured it out and when I got to work I bought one from the machine, thinking mine at home had just gone sour. Nope, same reaction. After a half dozen "EWWW" reactions, I stopped trying. I did not drink soda (Coke!) for 7 months.

Good luck on your "no more coke" lifestyle. It sucked me back in... lol.
I keep thinking that maybe I will quit again.

[jazzcat]

I don't drink sodas, coffee or tea. Haven't since 1995. Back in 2002 when my Dad had surgery I decided to get a Mountain Dew to see if the caffiene would help me get through the long day. OMG, I thought I was having a heart attack because my heart started pounding so hard. The nurses had me sit and rest while checking my BP and heart rate. For a while I couldn't figure out what it was and then I remembered drinking that soda.

Water and milk are about all I drink with the exception of fruit juice now and then and of course my favorite treat - a Sonic strawberry slush.

[Suki Wingy]

I'm pretty much hopelessly addicted to any carbonated soda. :o

[Miss Z]

Well done on giving it up!

I can see how you can find the taste so repelling after a break - when I turned vegetarian at 8 years old, at first I found it so hard to resist the hotdogs and burgers and all the other junk foods kids eat. After a while, though, the thought of eating meat became as normal to me as eating rocks. :)

I personally drink too much caffeine, mainly from coffee. Thing is, weather is always so murky over here that I always feel like having a hot drink! I do drink some carbonated drinks, particularly diet coke, but not that often.


The lining of your stomach is powerful enough to repel your stomach acid, which is strong enough to burn through solid steel. Tab aint nothing compared to that! lol

Not exactly repel; the stomach is coated in mucus, but as quickly as the acid has dissolved that mucus, it's already been replaced. No doubt though that sugary drinks knacker your teeth!

I remember seeing a programme which described coke as being a criminal's best friend - able to remove blood stains from a crime scene! :eek:

[jennielynn1970]

I drink Coke and most all sodas, and Sweet Tea, and i am actually quite a bit underweight :eek:.

You are also a growing boy... most of boys, if they are active, are not over weight, and at your age, tend to sprout up and look like beanpoles, lol.

[jennielynn1970]

I basically have gotten away from all sodas. I discovered that I really just like the fizzy part of it, so I get seltzer water and tonic water.

The seltzer water I buy is naturally flavored, and is not the diet stuff, but it's still 0 calories. I'm allergic to all those sugar substitutes (migraines that are horrendous), so no diet anything actually.

I have been drinking some Powerade recently. It was on sale 10 bottles for $10. I figure if I don't make them a habit, it will be ok.

Other than that, I do drink Arizona's Sweet Tea, and then other unsweetened tea. I am not a coffee drinker. In the winter I do love my teas, chai and my hot cocoa at work, lol. My office and library are FREEZING, even now.

[Flatcoatluver]

Congrats to all of you.

I am so addicted to pepsi.

[RockyRoad]

I am exactly the same way right now with Coke. Ever since I was very little, I got hooked on it. My mother didn`t allow me to have soda as a child except on special occasions, so I would always connive my friends` parents to give me some when I went over their houses. Now, I go through 6-10 cans of soda a day easily. It`s all I ever drink; I don`t even remember the last time I`ve drank anything else - even water! :eek: I`ve tried to stop, but the headaches were terrible. Now that I`m beginning a new diet tomorrow, I`m going to drop the Coke. Congrats to those who have already done it. I hope soon I will be able to say the same thing. :)

[RICHARD]

It's a gradual process.....a few weeks ago I was under some stress so I had a few cokes- I thought I was going to jump out of my skin.


I never did coffee and so the caffeine jolt from coke was pretty severe!

[K9karen]

I drink a lot of flavored water. But I refuse to give up coffee and suffer any nore withdrawal migraines or eliminate a diet pepsi from my life.

I think I read somewhere that Coke can remove toliet bowl stains! :eek:

[Catty1]

I really cut down on Coke Zero in the last several months - and after reading this thread today, drank the last one in my fridge and that will be it!

I used to buy "energizer tea" - now I make my own. Several green tea bags and several black (regular orange pekoe is black tea) in a pitcher of room temp water...all the bags will seep slowly, and make a strong brew.

I mix 1/2 that with 1/2 water and a few drops of Stevia. Not decaf...but not as jolting as coffee or colas.

Besides...the fizzy/phosphorus part of sodas just loves to suck calcium out of the bones...and I wanna hang on to my supply!:D

[Alysser]

I've been hooked on coke, and I don't think it will ever change lol. I usually drink Diet though, but I now drink Coke Zero. Diet is so tasteless compared to regular coke or coke zero. Bleh, I HATE diet coke now. :p

Congratulation on breaking your habit! You have way more self control then I do!

[jennielynn1970]

I mix 1/2 that with 1/2 water and a few drops of Stevia. Not decaf...but not as jolting as coffee or colas.

Besides...the fizzy/phosphorus part of sodas just loves to suck calcium out of the bones...and I wanna hang on to my supply!:D


First, what is Stevia??

Secondly, carbonation sucks calcium out of bones??? Even if it's seltzer water? If that's so, I'm going to have to start taking supplements. I had no idea that was an issue!

[Cataholic]

Jenn the L, stevia is a sugar substitute. We have it here in the US...

I have my 50 cups of coffee in the morning and an occasional fresca on hot days, or, when I think I need a pick me up (sugar wise). Otherwise, it is water and milk.

I recently bought some of the Pom concentrate, and mix it with the Fresca. Yum.

[jennielynn1970]

Hm... never heard of Stevia before. I don't use sugar substitutes, so maybe that's why I'm not familiar with it.

FRESCA... omg.... I was so addicted to that stuff when I was first living on my own. I loved it so much! I would drink 6-12 cans a day, and then wonder why I had these horrible migraines. :rolleyes: I just can't do the diet drinks.

A friend of my mom's had had diet soda in the car when they went on a trip across country, and I remember she ended up in the hospital because the soda got warm(or hot), and some how changed the chemistry of the soda. She was deathly ill, and they had pictures of her when she basically was looking out over a gorgeous view of mountains and valleys and all that, and then collapsed and fell.

That just scared the bejesus out of me, and I never leave anything in my car anymore that I want to injest. Even if there is some folklore, I still remember what happened to my mom's friend, and just shudder.

[RICHARD]

Jazz,
Or anyone else with a few hours to spare.


Drink a Red Bull.

If you think that a Mountain Dew put you into space! When I hear that people mix that with vodka I get nervous. Wired drunks? Uh-huh, that's what we need.

I did try a Monster Energy Drink two months ago. A neighbor gave us a case.

That was remarkably mellow and I didn't feel like I was going into cardiac arrest!:rolleyes:

[jennielynn1970]

Jazz,
Or anyone else with a few hours to spare.


Drink a Red Bull.

If you think that a Mountain Dew put you into space! When I hear that people mix that with vodka I get nervous. Wired drunks? Uh-huh, that's what we need.




I had a Red Bull ONCE. Only once. I think that it interacted with my antidepressant or something. I got all emotional, was just paranoid and freaked out. It was not pleasant, and it took a while for it to wear off.

I've heard of people doing some kind of shots with Red bull and vodka as well.

[RICHARD]

I had a Red Bull ONCE. Only once.


I had to sit at my desk and my fingers couldn't type fast enough. That sucked.
Now, if I had a job as a marathon runner.....:cool:

[Catty1]

Stevia is actually a 'sugar'.

Regular white sugar is made from sugar cane, or 'cane sugar'.

Stevia is derived from the Stevia plant. It is NOT calorie-free, but it takes a LOT less Stevia to sweeten the same as white sugar, so there are far fewer calories involved.

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/soft.html
Early warning in 1942:
Warnings about the dangers of soft drink consumption came to us as early as 1942 when the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Council on Food and Nutrition made the following noble statement: "From the health point of view it is desirable especially to have restriction of such use of sugar as is represented by consumption of sweetened carbonated beverages and forms of candy which are of low nutritional value. The Council believes it would be in the interest of the public health for all practical means to be taken to limit consumption of sugar in any form in which it fails to be combined with significant proportions of other foods of high nutritive quality."

Re: the fizzy stuff [read labels!]:

http://www.mindconnection.com/library/health/softdrinks.htm

Reading the rest of this article may be the best use you've ever made of 5 minutes. Yeah, we know Pepsi will never sponsor an ad on this site. But your health is more important to us.

It's tragic that the "beverage" industry shoves this toxic brew at human beings. Let's take a closer look at what it does.

The carbonation in all soft drinks causes calcium loss in the bones through a three-stage process:

1. The carbonation irritates the stomach.
2. The stomach "cures" the irritation the only way it knows how. It adds the only antacid at its disposal: calcium. It gets this from the blood.
3. The blood, now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. If it did not do this, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired.

But, the story doesn't end there. Another problem with most soft drinks is they also contain phosphoric acid (not the same as the carbonation, which is carbon dioxide mixed with the water). This substance also causes a drawdown on the store of calcium.

So, soft drinks soften your bones (actually, they make them weak and brittle) in three ways:

1. Carbonation reduces the calcium in the bones.
2. Phosphoric acid reduces the calcium in the bones.
3. The beverage replaces a calcium-containing alternative, such as milk or water. Milk and water are not excellent calcium sources, but they are sources.


From the same page:
And now you know why bone damage formerly apparent only in the very old is now showing up in teenagers. HELLO REGGIE! ;)

One more from:
Soft Drinks:
America's Other Drinking Problem
http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/soft.html

[long article but well worth the read!]

While our children are exposed to unremitting publicity for soft drinks, evidence of their dangers accumulates. The consumption of soft drinks, like land-mine terrain, is riddled with hazards. We as practitioners and advocates of a healthy life-style recognize that consuming even as little as one or two sodas per day is undeniably connected to a myriad of pathologies. The most commonly associated health risks are obesity, diabetes and other blood sugar disorders, tooth decay, osteoporosis and bone fractures, nutritional deficiencies, heart disease, food addictions and eating disorders, neurotransmitter dysfunction from chemical sweeteners, and neurological and adrenal disorders from excessive caffeine.

[jennielynn1970]

Candace, so even though I'm drinking seltzer water, thinking it is better for me than soda, it's actually just as bad in regards to calcium loss because it's fizzes? Darn!! I need the fizz. I gotta have fizz!! Flat stuff just doesn't cut it for me. Although I guess I'd rather have my bones and not have esophageal cancer than have fizzzzzz.

I swear everything is bad for you these days. :( :rolleyes:

[Lady's Human]

Water isn't a source of calcium at all, and milk is an excellent source of calcium.

Throws a little doubt on the rest of the science involved in the article.

BTW, the ph of the soda (normally around 2.5-4.0) is actually higher than the ph of your stomach acid (1.0-2.0).

[Catty1]

Yeah, that sentence struck me as a bit weird...in context with the rest of it, I think they were saying that soft drinks replace healthier drinks such as milk and water.

Either someone was not proofreading, or they get their water supply from a strange source! :D But there seems to be enough documentation about this from many other sources to give it validity.

Jenn - all I can say is 'read the label'. Find out what's in the stuff as far as phosphorus etc. I don't know how much one or two would hurt if you take a good supplement.

It's kind of like the 'low-fat' deal...it might be low-fat, but that means it's also LOADED with sugar! :rolleyes:

[jennielynn1970]

Jenn - all I can say is 'read the label'. Find out what's in the stuff as far as phosphorus etc. I don't know how much one or two would hurt if you take a good supplement.

It's kind of like the 'low-fat' deal...it might be low-fat, but that means it's also LOADED with sugar! :rolleyes:

My seltzer water says carbonated water and natural flavor under ingredients. That's it. The only thing that isn't a zero is sodium, which is 5mg.

Where would I find the phosphorus stuff listed??

[jennielynn1970]

I did find this on carbonated water and calcium loss (http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/5358.html)

[Lady's Human]

Jenn,

Anything over (I forget whether it's 10 ppm or a slightly higher number) has to be listed on the label.

There isn't any phosphoric acid in seltzer water, as there's nothing in it which needs either the flavor or the acid. All seltzer water consists of is carbonated water and a flavoring, usually an essential oil.

The web page you got that article from is full of holes, Catty. Scroll down to where it's talking about "average PH of the human body" or some other such nonsense. It gives a very definite value of 7.63, which screams BS. Given that there are areas in the human body with a very, very low PH, (stomach, intestines, liver), to have an average of 7.63 implies there are areas in the body which have a PH approaching 14, which is frankly lunacy.

Again, given that the average gastric acid PH is in the 1-2 range, and soda would actually RAISE that PH, (ph of 2.5-4), why would the stomach need to pump antacid into the stomach? That can of Coke you just drank RAISED the ph of your stomach(which would require additional acid to maintain the PH), not lowered it (which would require the antacid).

[RICHARD]

One thing about the content labels is that they tell you what is in your food and drink, but don't address the way your body uses those minerals and vitamins.

During a conversation with a friend years ago the subject of vitamins and meds in our water system came up.

Apparently the sewer systems are filled with vitamin and medications in pill forms that are not totally digested by the human body. The problem has become worse. If we cannot digest or absorb V's and M's in pill forms we are screwed.

The other 'worry' about getting your daily requirements of anything depend on what and how much you eat.

If you eat something that had 1000 calories, 30 percent of your daily sodium and 50% calcium, You have to balance that out with foods that have 1000 calories, 70% sodium and 50% calcium.

otherwise you are not balancing your diet! You overload in one or all areas!
:rolleyes:

[jennielynn1970]

LH - I thought Catty was saying that the fizzy stuff in the soda or carbonated beverages is from phosphorus? I think I'm making myself more confused (shocker, isn't it?!).

[Lady's Human]

The fizzy stuff (carbonation) in soda/seltzer is from carbon dioxide dissolved into the water under pressure.

[Catty1]

LH - if you could find a couple of better links to post, please do. I did a search, had quite a few to choose from, and chose the two that I thought covered it. I didn't want a mile long post (yes, failed at that anyway, I know!:D )

[Hellow]

Well, here is something to show that you would have to be chugging energy drinks 24/7 to die from them: http://www.energyfiend.com/death-by-caffeine

[Lady's Human]

That's probably based on the LD-50 for caffeine, which is an accurate measure for death from a substance, but you'd get effects from caffeine well before it became a lethal dose. Just like everything else on the internet, you can't rely on something as a sole source.

Research, research, research. (And no, wikipedia isn't an accurate source, but it IS a decent route to FIND sources)

[Gracefulsarah]

I'm pretty much hopelessly addicted to any carbonated soda. :o

Same here. I try to limit myself to 1 soda a day because I know I need to lose about 20 pounds. I know if I quit, it would probably come off pretty easy, but I cant. I hate the carbonated flavored waters, so there's not much else that I can drink. I hate diet sodas, coffee, flavored waters, and lots of other things. I also use the coke to combat migraines when they first attack, so I really am hopelessly addicted. :(

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

My 19 year old daughter Indra was hooked on Coca Cola too! About 1 month ago, she told me she never falls asleep before 4am :eek::eek:. Then I realised that the amount of caffeine might be the cause. She promised she would try to stop drinking Coca Cola.
After 3 days, she told me she had slept from 11pm to 9am!!
She is so happy now for my good advize (and I am happy that it worked;)); she even convinced her friend Matthias to stop too:):)

[-Pickle-]

I’m currently trying to cut back on anything that has excessive sugar in, like Coke, fruit juice in excess, just little things.
Currently it’s working, but I’m not giving Coke up completely.

[CountryWolf07]

I am hopelessly addicted to diet Mountain Dew. I wonder if I can ever stop. CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE KICKED THE HABIT!!!!!

LOL I am addicted to Mt. Dew Code Red.. :)