Done with Coca Cola!

[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! 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!

[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!

[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.

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!

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. 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!

[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.....

[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/librar...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.