Soft drink addiction

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Ozboz

Ozboz

Joined
Jun 20, 2012
Messages
822
Lately I've been craving bubbles so had a few soft drinks here and there now I can't seem to get through the day without at least a can through the day like I open a can in the morning and have sips or skulls throughout the day I try and drink as much water as I can but find myself hanging out fr a sweet bubbly drink.

Any tips on how I can get rid of this and I have tried fresh juices with sparkling mineral water but doesn't seem to get rid of the cravings why???
 
Because these things are designed to be addictive. You need to break the habit for long enough that you won't crave them any longer.

The juice fast you signed up for should help bunches with this :)!
 
Soda is easy and delicious. So cold and bubbly. I love it too but I had to drop the stuff because that's really all that's good about it. I love cold and hot tea too and its better for you so I just switched to that. Some teas have caffeine in them so if your addiction mainly lies there the switch shouldn't be too bad. You can also control the sugar content and use many different sweeteners (I use regular sugar usually (can't help that, tastes too good) but sometimes honey which is better than regular sugar).

For me I just stopped buying it altogether. If its not around then you don't drink it. I drank it every single day too once I started living on my own. At some point I looked at the sodium content and was grossed out. I was trying to lose some weight at the time and decided to cut out soda. I did lose weight, about 15 pounds (also didn't exercise cause I hate doing it). :p

Plus its not like you can't ever drink it again. Moderation is key.
 
you gotta beat the addiction :(

for a while i was mixing my own.....
Carbonated mineral water (NOT soda water) and lime juice, it's got the main part covered - bubbles, and the lime is thirst quenching. If you needed to you could mix honey but try it without any sweetener for a week and then a tiny bit of honey will seem like alot.

I also make herb teas and refridgerate them
 
Yeah I'm going to make some ice tea with stevia as a sweetner apparently stevia comes from a plant and is 2x sweeter than sugar but much better for you I have starte using it in cooking and hot drinks but am trying to switch to it

Also pepsi here in australia have just come out with pepsi next which is sweetend with stevia but all the other ingredients aren't very good

I'm trying to quit the fizzy drinks altogether as they're no good for my inflamed guts and they ruin your bones and I have ankylsing spondilitis which 10% of people with crohns get so I really need to quit it
 
My one vice is diet coke. The only reason I feel I shouldn't drink it is because there are no calories in it and I need the weight gain. But full sugar drinks taste horrible to me. I use it as my social drink because I don't drink alcohol or coffee.

I'm not that bothered about the health risks... I know they're not exactly going to benefit you but I've never been convinced they're as evil as the press they get.

As long as you're not drinking litres every day or anything. Moderation and "part of a balanced diet" and all that. :)

Coke does seem a little addictive. Not like drug addictive, but you kind of learn to expect it. If you want to give up it's just a question of not giving in to the cravings for long enough that your body stops expecting it - it's got to happen eventually.

For some reason bubbly drinks don't unsettle my stomach in the way you'd think they would. I drink only small quantities at a time (probably not even a whole can in one go, more like half a can would do me) and it can actually seem to make my stomach feel a little better.
 
I buy 100% lemon or lime juice and mix like 2oz into 8oz of water/sparkling and add 8 drops of stevia. I would brew kombucha, but it is kinda a hassle and hard to keep it fizzy unless you work out how to bottle it properly--which I haven't perfected.
 
Something I have heard of that people use to try and stop drinking caffeine is diluting the drink slowly until you are actually having very little of it.

For example: instead of having a can of a soft drink perhaps you can try mixing 2/3rds of a can with carbonated water. This way you should get most of the same experience as before. From there you can try to move to half a can of soda or even a quarter can.

This still requires willpower, but it is supposedly helpful for people. I have heard this being done with coffee and tea (gradually increasing the amount that is decaffeinated), which may make it harder to do with a soft drink, but it might be worth a try.
 
I was once in your position - couldn't go a day without having at least one soda, usually a Coke or a Sprite. For me, I couldn't wean off it so I went cold turkey. It took many tries but I eventually built up the willpower to stop. You just have to mentally be done with it. Good luck!
 
KWalker said:
what's wrong with drinking soft drinks? lol
Click to expand...

Nothing. :) I've heard of some people drinking quite excessive quantities though - if it's getting to litres everyday it may be a problem. Otherwise they're fine. And they are far far better for the intestines (my intestines, anyway) than "healthy" things like fruit and veg and whole grains. :tongue:
 
Gianni said:
...Really? How so?
Click to expand...

Foods generally categorised as healthy - fruits, veg, wholegrains - things high in insoluble fibre basically - are really hard to digest. The make my stomach uncomfortable and make diarrhoea worse. I understand this is quite common for people with IBD and other digestive problems. So while for the majority/healthy population, those are healthy foods, they're not good for everyone.

Fizzy drinks don't give me any negative effects. They're not good for my health but they certainly don't make me feel worse. Might be different for other people. I know they can cause heartburn and give some people gas. And maybe they're not so great for you teeth. But for a lot of people fizzy drinks are better than many healthy foods.

Also I think fizzy drinks get demonised excessively. I saw a documentary once where they were saying fizzy drinks - even diet ones - cause obesity. Something about diet drinks making people want to eat more. It seemed a bit ridiculous to me because it's the overall levels of calories people consume that can make them obese - not one food or food type. I know I can drink fizzy drinks and stay thin, and plenty of other people can too.

Perhaps fizzy drinks will be associated with some particular health risk, but I've never seen anything definite about that yet.
 
UnXmas said:
Foods generally categorised as healthy - fruits, veg, wholegrains - things high in insoluble fibre basically - are really hard to digest. The make my stomach uncomfortable and make diarrhoea worse. I understand this is quite common for people with IBD and other digestive problems. So while for the majority/healthy population, those are healthy foods, they're not good for everyone.

Fizzy drinks don't give me any negative effects. They're not good for my health but they certainly don't make me feel worse. Might be different for other people. I know they can cause heartburn and give some people gas. And maybe they're not so great for you teeth. But for a lot of people fizzy drinks are better than many healthy foods.
Click to expand...

I have this problem, too. :( Most healthy things hurt - so I'm usually better off avoiding them. Soda doesn't bother my stomach, but water does. I don't understand that. It makes me very nauseous, and if I drink a lot (like you have to before an ultrasound) I start gagging on it and then throwing up. I drink juices and soda.
 
SarahBear said:
I have this problem, too. :( Most healthy things hurt - so I'm usually better off avoiding them. Soda doesn't bother my stomach, but water does. I don't understand that. It makes me very nauseous, and if I drink a lot (like you have to before an ultrasound) I start gagging on it and then throwing up. I drink juices and soda.
Click to expand...

Wow water really? I've never heard of that being problematic for anyone before. That must be difficult :( I don't like the taste of water so I find it really hard to drink loads before an ultrasound - and really hard to hold on with my bladder afterwards lol. I think they overdo it and make us drink too much before ultrasounds sometimes. I drink squash, juice if it's not too acidic, milk as long as it's not so much to make me full (dairy's never been a problem for me, I know that's often not the case), hot chocolate... and diet coke. :)
 
Yep, everyone I tell thinks I'm crazy. The taste doesn't bother me - I have no idea what the problem is. I've never really been able to drink it... as a kid, I drank juice, milk, and soda - the same as now.

I had to drink three glasses before an ultrasound last month and it was terrible. By the end of the first, I was gagging. Halfway through the second I had to take a break because I was about to throw up. Luckily, the doctor said I could stop then because I'm small enough that two glasses is sufficient.
 

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