Soda help! page 4

[MissJecka]

Not as a final solution, but as a weaning off the Mt. Dew solution, our local healthfood store sells carbonated soft drinks sweetened with stevia. Some flavors have caffeine (like their version of Mt. Dew) and some flavors don't. The Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper copies are pretty good. The root beer is not good in my opinion.

I think you're talking about Zevia. I used to drink this stuff at a vegan diner back when I was in my vegan phase not too long ago. I did really enjoy the root beer and the cherry versions.

[ShakeragSusan]

I think you're talking about Zevia. I used to drink this stuff at a vegan diner back when I was in my vegan phase not too long ago. I did really enjoy the root beer and the cherry versions.

Yes, that's the stuff. I like that it is expensive, too. That way I can't overdo it! Ha!

[alexkharden]

Wow, I guess this thread really blew up! Thanks everyone for the replies. I know how horrible it is for me, I'm just a dirty junkie I've read on aspartame, as well as BVO, and was properly disgusted by it, and I keep drinking.

I think I'm going to try the lemon/lime carbonated water mix and see how that does for me. Those lemon bottle and lime bottles, you know the little plastic ones that they sell in the liquor stores that look like little lemons and limes, does anyone know if those are actual fruit juice, or just some combination of chemicals made to taste like lemons and limes?

[hulahoop]

I think freshly squeezed / sliced lemon / lime would taste far nicer, those plastic ones have preservatives in them. I used to drink pepsi and vimto all the time. I hated water but now I will quite happily drink water with a slice of lemon and find it refreshing. You might be fed up drinking water for a few weeks but if you stick with it it will get easier. You can do it! Save yourself money as well

[qqemokitty]

As someone who used to drink 3-6 sodas every single day, let me tell you this: COLD TURKEY. You MUST just quit. It is so bad for you and I guarantee that you will feel MUCH better. Temptation is hard (free sodas at my work all day every day) but thinking about what that shit is doing to your insides (and possibly your outsides) is worse.

Drink lots and lots of water and lean on pain meds if you need to for the withdrawal. It also helps to incentivise. I made what I call a "gentleman's bet" with a co-worker that I would not have a single soda (not even a sip) for the entire 2012. Not even my beloved hand crafted italian sodas!

You can do it, you just have to WANT to do it. I personally believe that you cannot be living primal if you're still drinking soda.

[qqemokitty]

I love the bullshit claims of: "It's poison in a bottle". If you like diet soda, drink diet soda. Show me hard evidence that the chemicals in diet soda are "poisonous".... I want to see the fatalities linked to diet soda consumption... I would like to see that versus breathing the air in L.A.

Anecdotal... I drank diet coke since childhood until around March 2011 when I decided to quit it because I thought I had a caffeine addiction. It turns out I didn't. I had an aspartame addiction. Withdrawal from aspartame caused extreme migraine, joint pain, fatigue, nausea, and an almost heroin-addict level of desire to eat packets of the stuff at restaurants.

I don't know what you're going for here. Are you actually defending an overly sweet chemical concoction?

[KatieCHI]

Somebody on another thread suggested unsweetened cranberry juice with seltzer water and lime. It's super sour, but it helped me kick diet pepsi. Now I only drink coffee, tea and water. I actually have a diet pepsi can left in my fridge that I have scribbled encouraging doodles on with a sharpie. It's a relic of what once was.

[LauraSB]

I think I'm going to try the lemon/lime carbonated water mix and see how that does for me. Those lemon bottle and lime bottles, you know the little plastic ones that they sell in the liquor stores that look like little lemons and limes, does anyone know if those are actual fruit juice, or just some combination of chemicals made to taste like lemons and limes?

As hulahoop said, they are real juice with preservatives. I have tried them, and the larger bottles of Real Lemon from the grocery store. IMO, they don't taste as good as freshly squeezed. I keep a lemon or lime cut into 8 wedges in a small tupper in the frig. It's almost as easy to just squeeze one or two into the glass.