What would removing soda from your diet do for you?

[dirtyparrot]

I pretty much drink soda once in a blue moon.

Anyway, I remember reading that switching to diet soda does not help people to lose weight (I believe it has the opposite effect). And you're still getting the teeth dissolving phosphoric acid in the diet drink as well. I've heard that Coke is pretty good at cleaning, although I've never tried using it for that.

The only time that I would consider drinking soda on a somewhat regular basis was if I was traveling and was worried about the water quality there.

 

[Antilogic]

I pretty much drink soda once in a blue moon.

Anyway, I remember reading that switching to diet soda does not help people to lose weight (I believe it has the opposite effect). And you're still getting the teeth dissolving phosphoric acid in the diet drink as well. I've heard that Coke is pretty good at cleaning, although I've never tried using it for that.

The only time that I would consider drinking soda on a somewhat regular basis was if I was traveling and was worried about the water quality there.

If I recall my biochemistry correctly, the problem is your body reacts as if it is consuming sugar when it actually isn't, so it tries to store energy despite there not being any simple sugars to break down. So it stores other food as fat.

Most of the Coke "cleaning" stories are invented, methinks. If you spill soda, stuff is just going to get sticky, not clean. As far as acids go, the pH of soda isn't significantly greater than in other acidic foods, like lemons/lemonade or other citrus drinks.

 

[MjM]

My soda drinking has increased, sadly. I used to be a one serving a week kinda guy, or only out to eat, which is usually about once a week. The past year or so, however, it has gone up to almost a soda/sugary drink a day. I want to phase them out again. The negative effects arent really noticable now, but I am only 20 and they will catch up with me.

Most of the Coke "cleaning" stories are invented, methinks.

Coca Cola is extremely useful for cleaning chrome. Mythbusters did a thing on it.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

For most of my life, I rarely drank soft drinks.

Until I entered the job training program at Goodwill. Eventually, I got into the habit of drinking the 20 fl. oz. Mountain Dews available in the vending machines on daily basis during my breaks.

When they cut me loose (because I'm a stubborn douchebag who took to long to learn things ), I went up to those tall 24 fl. oz. six packs available at wal-mart, one bottle a day.

Of course, the anti-pop propaganda got to me and made me cut down to one coffee cup of Mountain Dew per day.

I love me some Mountain Dew.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Is your tap unfit for human consumption?

Some places have incredibly awful water. There are First Nations settlements where the people don't have indoor plumbing and the groundwater is contaminated by pulp mills, drilling (oil and gas wells), and other environmental problems. Red Deer's water becomes undrinkable in the springtime due to runoff - the water is brown and smells horrible!

I was brought up on well water, and since we moved into the city, I haven't had a decent drink of water, ever!

Your water may not taste nice, but it certainly isn't going to be harmful.

Tell that to the dead people in Walkerton.

Why would anybody want to live a long life if they could not enjoy Dr. Pepper? If you are able and do not Drink Dr. Pepper than you need to re-examine your life.

Mmm... Cherry-Chocolate diet Dr Pepper!

BTW, I have no idea if Vanilla Coke is available anywhere in Canada - certainly I haven't seen it here in YEARS. But somebody suggested that I get regular Coke and add a drop or two of real (NOT artificial!) vanilla extract to the Coke. I haven't tried it yet because pure vanilla extract is godawful expensive.

 

[Synobun]

Some places have incredibly awful water. There are First Nations settlements where the people don't have indoor plumbing and the groundwater is contaminated by pulp mills, drilling (oil and gas wells), and other environmental problems. Red Deer's water becomes undrinkable in the springtime due to runoff - the water is brown and smells horrible!

I was brought up on well water, and since we moved into the city, I haven't had a decent drink of water, ever!

That would actually probably explain it. I'm almost a hundred percent positive that there are a few quarries within 30km of where I live, not to mention there are a bunch of dump sites for waste, and just recently, a toxic waste site (which the government so kindly named a recycling plant).

When I think about it, I don't know a single person in my town or the general area (unless they are on a well, which is pretty common on the outskirts and back roads) that drinks tap water, or if they do, they have a pretty damn expensive filter on it.

@contre - Walkerton has a good track record. A single incident does not totally crush its reputation. Pretty much everybody where I live agrees that Walkerton water is good, especially the sports teams that regularly go to play there and sometimes even spend multiple days there. That incident could have happened to any water place, though granted the authority in Walkerton handled it terribly and lied to its people.

I never once claimed that drinking my tap water would kill people. I said that it is unhealthy. It tastes terrible. It is quite often that the water is brown, or has flakes of brown stuff in it. And when I say often, I mean generally on a daily basis whenever you take water. I am sure it is fine for washing yourself and for cleaning stuff, however I would not recommend drinking this water daily for anybody, no matter how low your water standards are.

I am also fully aware of the cost comparison. I never claimed that water itself was expensive. I claimed that the water here is too bad to be able to replace my soda with it. I even then brought up that a good filter attached to the tap in my house would completely change my mind because then it would be tolerable. Just about everything you said is exaggerated or already responded to.

Edit@Valka - I saw Vanilla Coke a couple weeks ago in a convenience store here. It seemed old, but not expired just yet. I wasn't very impressed with the taste though. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't worth another buy.

Editx2@Valka - Also worth mentioning is that they are beginning construction of something called a mega-quarry about 20km away. I do not see the water benefiting from this either.

 

[Dachs]

Edit@Valka - I saw Vanilla Coke a couple weeks ago in a convenience store here. It seemed old, but not expired just yet. I wasn't very impressed with the taste though. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't worth another buy.

Bottled or canned?

 

[Synobun]

Bottled or canned?

Canned. Anything coke related here is usually not sold in bottles, or if it is, it's three times the price of a can.

 

[Antilogic]

My favorite is to take a few drops of lemon or lime juice (better yet, a wedge), and squeeze it over the ice. Then pour your cola.

Mmm...

 

[Zelig]

That would actually probably explain it. I'm almost a hundred percent positive that there are a few quarries within 30km of where I live, not to mention there are a bunch of dump sites for waste, and just recently, a toxic waste site (which the government so kindly named a recycling plant).

When I think about it, I don't know a single person in my town or the general area (unless they are on a well, which is pretty common on the outskirts and back roads) that drinks tap water, or if they do, they have a pretty damn expensive filter on it.

@contre - Walkerton has a good track record. A single incident does not totally crush its reputation. Pretty much everybody where I live agrees that Walkerton water is good, especially the sports teams that regularly go to play there and sometimes even spend multiple days there. That incident could have happened to any water place, though granted the authority in Walkerton handled it terribly and lied to its people.

I never once claimed that drinking my tap water would kill people. I said that it is unhealthy. It tastes terrible. It is quite often that the water is brown, or has flakes of brown stuff in it. And when I say often, I mean generally on a daily basis whenever you take water. I am sure it is fine for washing yourself and for cleaning stuff, however I would not recommend drinking this water daily for anybody, no matter how low your water standards are.

I am also fully aware of the cost comparison. I never claimed that water itself was expensive. I claimed that the water here is too bad to be able to replace my soda with it. I even then brought up that a good filter attached to the tap in my house would completely change my mind because then it would be tolerable. Just about everything you said is exaggerated or already responded to.

Edit@Valka - I saw Vanilla Coke a couple weeks ago in a convenience store here. It seemed old, but not expired just yet. I wasn't very impressed with the taste though. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't worth another buy.

Editx2@Valka - Also worth mentioning is that they are beginning construction of something called a mega-quarry about 20km away. I do not see the water benefiting from this either.

What municipality are you in? If water test data isn't available online, it's still freely available to you, by law, I can look up appropriate contact information if you'd like.

 

[Renner]

I usually drink pepsi only once or twice a week, I do tend to drink a lot of juice though.

 

[Synobun]

What municipality are you in? If water test data isn't available online, it's still freely available to you, by law, I can look up appropriate contact information if you'd like.

Grey county. The municipality is Grey Highlands. I've tried looking for water test data but can't find any, and the local authorities pertaining to the government generally do not respond to inquiries at all (personal experience plays into that assumption). If you can get better results, by all means, I would be thankful.

 

[Racsoviale]

I stopped drinking soda(as well as eating sweets) a while a back, when I realized my dental hygiene was bad and if I wanted to keep my teeth somewhat in good condition I should probably stop with the worst things I have done to them.

Occasionally, if I have a long workday ahead of me, Ill buy one of the dextrose(?) sodas we have here. But that is mostly for the energyboost. I have no idea if they give more energy than normal sodas, but the placeboeffects work for me

 

[Dachs]

Canned. Anything coke related here is usually not sold in bottles, or if it is, it's three times the price of a can.

Coke in a can sucks ass. For Vanilla Coke especially, the taste of the aluminum overwhelms all the other tastes. I get 20 oz Vanilla Coke bottles periodically at area convenience stores and the difference is night and day.

 

[onedreamer]

I drink water and I drink when I'm thirsty. Sometimes I drink wine, you know, special occasions & such. I notice that people who drink regularly soda drinks do it as a sort of automation/habit. It isn't much different from smoking just because you need the "gestures" connected with it. I doubt that calories have anything to do with this. This is just my humanly hence biased observation of course.

 

[Mise]

Mise, ditch the sweeteners in the coffee/tea! First off, tea never needs sweeteners. It's fine on its own. Might take a moment to get used to. Coffee's harshness is easily solved by some cream, half and half, or whole milk. If you are milk-intolerant I'm sure there are still better options that sweeteners which aren't good for you.

Tea without sugar?! Madness! Green teas don't need sugar, but English breakfast definitely needs it. And milk! I used skimmed milk.

I don't think there's anything wrong with sweeteners. Or at least, they're no more bad for you than, well, anything else I could be eating at this particular moment. I mean, I had a packet of Hula Hoops for breakfast. That's surely worse than tea with sweetener

 

[Dachs]

And milk! I used skimmed milk.

You might as well just use water.

 

[Mise]

I'll add water to my water shall I?

Skimmed milk is fine for tea and coffee.

 

[El_Machinae]

I wildly vary whether I add cream and splenda to my coffee. It's definitely a mood thing. Probably about half my coffees have cream. It used to be 100%, until I looked at the calories. And I get satisfaction from black coffee anyway, so it's not a bad substitute.

 

[Leifmk]

I already don't drink non-diet sodas, so.

Basically the only things I drink with calories in them are milk (daily), fruit juices and iced coffee drinks (a few times each per week) and alcoholic beverages (less than weekly, these days). Water, coffee, diet soda, the occasional cup of tea usually without sweetener (I do like to throw a little honey in there when I have a sore throat, though).

Incidentally, at my usual activity level I lose weight at 3k kcal/day.