Fifty Plus (50+) - How have you weaned yourself off soda?

I'm looking for advice from the 50+ community on how to wean myself from soda. Surely some of you have done it, right? I'd like to hear from those who've been sodaholics for many years but finally figured out how to "just say no."

I have cases of Fresca (I buy it on sale) in my home, all three flavors. These are sugar free, but I'm sure the artificial sugar ain't particularly good for me, either.

When I'm out and about, I'll drink Coke -- not diet, but the real, high-test stuff.

I'd like to eliminate soda from my diet. I've tried switching to water, or water with lemon, and that works for a while, but I'm afraid that forty years of soda consumption (especially as we weren't allowed to have it as a child in my family) have me hooked.

So -- what have you done? Switched to juice? Quit soda cold turkey? Gone to ice tea? What's the number for Soda Anonymous -- and how does one get a sponsor?

Diet sodas contain aspartame-not good. I also used to drink many sodas every day. Now I put seven bottles of water, 16oz each, on the counter every morning which must be consumed throughout the day. No more room in the tummy for drinking anything else at home. When I'm on the bike, I see no reason not to drink a regular coke. About 32 grams of sugar, 32 grams od carbs, go juice., If you want another reason to quit remember, soda is high in phosphoric acid which eats your bones up,couple that with the fact that bicycling is low impact and does not strengthen your bones and you may be headed for trouble

This is a tough one for me,too. My method has been to reduce my consumption of fast food - period. Not completely, but substantially. For me, Coke goes with fast food like gravy on mashed potatoes. I love Coke.

Fruit juice isn't really an alternative because the sugar content is high. Even 100% juice is loaded with sugar. It does have vitamins, though. Coke has nothing.

I'm afraid that water is the choice of us calorie-challenged. Double the lemon, please.

No strategies here.I teach 10 year olds. Once a year I stop by my dentist's office and he gives me some teeth he's pulled...usually nice ones. They're surprizingly big with the roots and all.

Anyway, back in the classroom, we soak them in mason jars filled with coke, pepsi, etc. At the end of a week we fish them out. Invariably they are pitted and stained. At the end of two weeks they have become cratered. Good lesson for the kids.

I never really got started on sodas, beyond an occasional root beer. Today my only "sodas" are Juice Squeeze and other carbonated fruit juices.

I used to drink a lot of coke (probably a 6 pack of cans a day at my peak. I find that ice water was what I needed. Even though I could drink coke at any temperature from iced to room temerature, I found that water would only cut through the "thirst" that coke used to when it was very cold.

For me, cold turkey was best...

Sorry, can't help you! Never was a soda "jerk."

Water is my bag - perhaps two diet lemon-limes a week.

Some recent research suggests some artificial sweeteners increase the desire for sugar.

On another thread, several people advised making small changes in one's diet to lose weight. So I'm thinking this soda thing might be a good idea.

Anyone have an ice tea maker, or are those a waste of money? I do enjoy making sun tea, but that relies on having enough memory to make it a few hours before one wants it. I often don't have that kind of memory to spare. I'm thinking I could enjoy ice tea with lemon.

If you would normally maintain weight for a given year, and remove one can of cola per day you will lose 16 pounds in a year... so yes, small changes do make a difference.

Dang Gary-you really know how to zero in on everyone's vulnerablilities don't you?

I used to be a big Mountain Dew guy. I'd drink a couple in the morning and who knows how many after lunch and in the evening. I'd even wake up at night and run to the fridge and get a few swallows. I had some minor heart issues (atrial fib) and quickly realized that caffeine was not helping it so I switched to caffeine free Mt Dew. Coming down off that much of a daily dose of caffeine caused withdrawal symptons very much like the flu.

My next issues were kidney stones. LOTs of kidney stones-at least one every 3 mos. The urologist told me that while sodas weren't the primary source they were a large contributing factor-along with iced tea. But, he told me that if I drank lemonade, it actually helps to keep my calcium oxalate stones from forming so quickly.

So, I'm completely off sodas and drink lots and lots of lemonade (Minute Maid in the carton is my favorite-can't stand the Lite versions......) and water. I always order lemonade when it's available or just get water. I know there is sugar in the lemonade but that's another reason I simply pile on the miles.

I'll admit it took a little while to get off the sodas and tea (the really good sweetened Southern version) but I had some good reasons to do it. We all probably have some unhealthy habits and mentally it would be really hard to come completely clean on them all-but I just can't see where sodas are doing us any good.....

Aside from my smart-ass but true reply above about teeth, regular fruit juices diluted a bit with carbonated water (Calistoga, etc.) and a squeeze of lemon or lim when appropriate can be an alternative-- and a lot of discipline at first I'm afraid. I've never been a soda guy because they seem so sweet to me. Now, homemade cookies.....

Dropping soda from the diet is indeed a good move. As with so many other things, though, it's a lot easier if you replace it with something else you really like. That's a very personal thing, and your mileage surely will vary. What has worked for me is to replace it with sparkling water with lots of lemon or lime squeezed in. The sparkle gives it the same "feel" as a soda, and if you put enough lemon or lime in you really get some nice flavor too. Chilled down and consumed after a ride, I find it quite satisfying.

Fruit juices are good too. Watch what you get, because a lot of them are sweetened. Shop around, and find something really tasty. Discipline is a fine thing to have, but it's a lot easier to cut something out if you replace it with something you like even better. :)

Good luck!!!

Well, I buy cases of Tejava iced tea. It is unsweetened, so you might not like it, but I love the stuff. On my second liter bottle of the day right now. It can be pretty expensive if you buy the smaller bottles at the market, but if you have a Trader Joes near you, it only costs 98 cents for each liter sized bottle.

Fresca! I haven't drank that since I was in RVN where it could be had for 50cents a case! Be that as it may, try quitting cold turkey. I've read some studies that say that for smokers that is generally the most effective way and I have found that this is the most effective way for me to quit my bad habit du jour. Good luck!

Tea Recipe

Get one of those 2 qt plastic pitchers with a tight fitting lid.
Green tea bags. Bigelow or Celestial Seasonings are good brands.
Black tea bags. Earl Grey, English Breakfast, English Teatime. Bigelow or Stash.
Good quality tea tastes better.... that's just the way it is.
Lipton's is for restaurants and airlines.

Boil 4 cups of water in a saucepan.
Remove from heat.
Put in 4 green and 2 black tea bags.
Steep for 8 minutes only and remove tea bags.
Pour the tea into the pitcher and fill with cold water.
Store in the fridge.

When thirsty, fill a tall glass with cold tea, squeeze a large lemon wedge in there and sweeten with 1 teaspoon of splenda.

Drinking green tea with meals is supposed to help with weight loss. It has a lot of caffiene if you need to watch that.

For a refreshing summertime drink, stir in a tablespoon of Gatorade lemon/lime powder and some ice cubes instead of the lemon and splenda.

Dogbait

Coffee- Wine- Water.

Coffee- Wine- Water.


Addendum to this--- Dentist bills.

I used to drink about six cans of Coke a day. Here's what I did:

1 Limited myself to one can, consumed right after riding to work. (none on weekends).
2 Started drinking lemon seltzer water as a replacement.
3 Began drinking fruit juices.

The can of Coke is the day's big treat. If I do something energetic (like ride 10 miles towing my kid in a trailer when it is really hot) I allow myself a second Coke.

The result was I began losing a pound a month sinch I started this two years ago. Also, I enjoy my morning drink, but no longer crave it.

Paul

Anyone have an ice tea maker, or are those a waste of money? I do enjoy making sun tea, but that relies on having enough memory to make it a few hours before one wants it. I often don't have that kind of memory to spare. I'm thinking I could enjoy ice tea with lemon.
We have a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker that we use mainly in the summer. Not must taste for iced tea when every thing else is cold and icey. The tea maker works very well. It uses standard coffee filters and you can use tea bags or loose tea. We like to go to a tea shop and buy different flavors of loose tea, especially strawberry or orange spice. The loose teas don't need much sweetening and most are caffeen free. It helps if you have an ice maker, since you fill the pitcher with ice to start (two trays of cubes).

Up until I was in my late 20's I use to drink coke a lot, but then I stopped cold turkey, it was hard for a while but I got over it. Now I drink water-on a long, hard bike ride I will take Citomax to keep my energy level up. I rarely drink soda now, if we go out to eat, I may drink tea. Changing your diet to better foods will probably help too. Remember, your body is like a car, if you put crummy gas in it, it will run crummy, good fuel, then it will perform well. Garbage in, garbage out.

I used to drink at least six 12 ounce Pepsi's a day. I could go through a 20 pack on the weekend, no problem. I drank Coke or Dr. Pepper every now and then just to mix things up. In addition to that, here in the deep south sweet iced tea is a way of life. We make it every day for either lunch or supper. I've managed to wean myself off the soft drinks, except for one at lunch two or three times a week. I don't drink the diet ones, my wife thinks the artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar. My wife also thinks that sweet Koolaid with a cup of sugar is better for you than soft drinks. (I'll take her word for it, she's in the food business.)

To quit, I just started not drinking all of a canned soft drink. I'd drink some, then pour the rest out. If I was drinking by the glass I'd just keep adding ice. That way the soft drink part at least gets watered down by the melting ice. I also started drinking water, lots of water. Plain old tap water is cheap. When I was a kid we always had a pitcher of water in the fridge. After a hard day of play nothing was better. Somehow as I got older I got away from that habit.

The odd thing is, even with all the crap I used to eat and drink, I never had a weight problem until I quit smoking. I had lots of cavity problems, but I could go years and not gain or drop any pounds. When I did gain weight it was usually during a quit smoking try, and I could put on 15 or 20 pounds in a month without cigs. When I started back smoking I would lose a little of the new weight. When I finally quit for good two years ago I gained 30 pounds to 195. After starting to drink mostly water I've gotten down to 190 and there I've stayed. So I want to get a bike to see if I can work off the other 25 pounds and get back to 160. I feel like a pig with this much weight. Good luck on quitting soft drinks, they are not good for you.

I do enjoy an occasional soda, coke, orange but only if it is offered to me, so for me, soda, coffee, ice tea etc. is optional. 95% of the time, I am drinking water, hot tea with lemon and milk. At the young age of 58, I want to minimize dental expenses. I hope to keep my canine choppers for another 50 years, even if they're not in my mouth. :D

SG

I'm looking for advice from the 50+ community on how to wean myself from soda. Surely some of you have done it, right? I'd like to hear from those who've been sodaholics for many years but finally figured out how to "just say no."

Great question. Wish I had the answer. Last time I tried, I remained soda free for three months and gave up because constantly thinking about soda was consuming my life. At least when I drink soda, I don't think about it all the time.

I think to quit soda addiction you'd need some replacement first. Mineral water, hot tea, coffee, homemade lemonade, juice, beer, vodka.

If keeping the caffine is important, they make some nice Green Teas - Blueberry & Rasberry, etc. You can choose to add a little Splenda if keeping the weight off is the focus (as it is for me).

If you're trying to get yourself to drink more water specifically, try one of the Fruitwater products. They don't add sweetner or have any calories, and they're suprisingly tasty. There's just a hint of flavor that gives you the feeling that it's a "Beverage" rather than "booring" water.

I quit, not by choice.
Used to have a 3 Dr Pepper a day habit.
Three years ago a sinus infection changed the way that soda tasted.
I stopped cold turkey. Don't miss it.
My doctor is happy, my dentist is happy, I'm happy.
Coffee, tea, water, fruit juice and an occasional raspberry iced tea.
Think I've had one Sprite in the past year, and I didn't finish it.

A regular 10 or 12 cup drip coffee maker works well for making iced tea, though you either have to have one dedicated to tea, or get an extra piece that holds the filter basket as it's pretty much impossible to get the coffee taste out of that. I use one large family size tea-bag (no filter needed with a tea bag) and a full pot of water. It runs through in about five minutes, and then I simply pour it into a half-gallon rubbermaid pitcher filled with ice and stick it in the fridge.

I believe coffee makers are easier to find, take up less room, and can be much cheaper than ice tea makers. I also use mine to make hot tea, but for that I use loose tea and a filter.

You've got a good idea wanting to stop the soda habit--I haven't managed it yet, but I have switched to only diet sodas with Splenda. The aspartame in most diet drinks gives me massive headaches over time.

Good luck,
Dagna

I have never really had the soda problem. However I do suffer from the "sweet iced tea" fix. I must have it with lunch! Dinner it is not a problem as it doesn't go well with wine and dinner always has wine.

Coke and diet sodas take work to get rid of. Why? they are both addictive. Harder to get off of than pipe smoking, but once off they no longer taste good. In fact that is the perfect test if you are wiened or not, if they still taste good you've still got a problem.

It helps to review why they are not good for you and keep a list somewhere so when you forget, you have a reference. I used something like this: Coke > tooth degeneration, coke > tryglyceride levels which increases risk of diabetes, coke > weight, coke > caffine dependency which increases stress on prostrate gland, you don't want to increase your risk of prostrate enlargement.
Aspertine and all other free no calorie additives are unknown: chemical brews with unknown long term risks. If they were good for you, they would be in natural foods and not in chemicists beaker. Safest of this group is saccrine.

Now the question, what do you drink instead. I used to drink hot tea because it still has some caffiene. It just depends on how much you are drinking. Drinking sugar water just makes you hungier and thirstier, great if you're in the soda pop business, not so great if you're trying to improve your body. I went from 12 cups of coffee/day to 1 morning cup of coffee and 12 cups of hot tea during the day, to 1 am coffee and 6 cups of hot tea and 6 cups of plain hot water, to one am cup of coffee and rest hot water. I still enjoy the kick start of the coffee in the morning, but it's is amazing how good just plain hot water can taste. If you want flavor, put in a couple drops of lemon or lime juice. Soon, you won't bother and just drink the water. Hot water is key because it is so much more thirst satisfying than cold water and is very easy on the stomach.

But if you start getting headaches, this is probably caffine withdrawal, and you'll be best off to add back a little caffine for a short period of time to get rid of the headaches.

Good luck.

I haven't had a soda of any kind for over a year. I used to drink Diet Coke constantly until I found out it was causing my dizzy spells during the day, haven't had one since I gave up the Coke.

Have you tried eating fruits, plenty of them in great variety: oranges, apples, kiwis, grapes, mandarins, melons, etc, buy a selection, whatever looks good and/or goes for a good price. Fresh, not canned! :mad:

Keep them at close reach.

Not only they can bring the necessary hydration you need, but also substitute the sugar you are craving for from a better healthier source and can satisfy your craving for food between meals.

Ad rice to your diet to counter-balance any undesirable side effects if they occur.

Then if you happen to accidently buy sodas because you could not resist, use them for cleaning off these tar marks on your rims instead of drinking it, works better than simple green, just maybe not as environmental friendly :D

Lime flavored Calistoga water broke the whole family off soda. It's healthy and tastes great. After bieng off soda for a while, you discover what a huge "sugar want" trigger it is. Being off soda has allowed us to break the ice cream habit too. With biking, no soda/ice cream and careful dieting, I'm down 55 lbs. 20 more to go. bk

One of my goals for this year is to give up soda, specifically diet Pepsi...that Aspartame stuff is really not good! However it's easier said than done.

You might try club soda with a spritz of grape or cranberry juice in it for flavor. You've still got the fizz for that "party in your mouth" feeling, but without all the calories or aspartame...

I had a friend in the military who used to drink a minimum of 2 cases[I] of Coke a day! We went to the field one weekend and never saw him without a Coke in his hand. He had found out where we were going and had hidden six cases so he could always have his fix. Now that's addiction!

Good luck!

I used to drink a six pack of Diet Pepsi a day for many years. My change came went i went on dialysis and was limited to 64 ounces of fluid a day. After my transplant, I became more educated on treating my kidney better. It was suggested that I drink one 12 oz. can of caffeine free clear soda a day. I have made the awitch to Diet Sprite or Diet 7up, because I still do not like the taste of regular pop, so I drink plenty of cold water and ice tea to stay hydrated.

I used to drink 2 cases of diet Pepsi a week. Just quit altogether one day. I now drink one espresso a day and two DIET Snapples. The juice mix drinks they have are great. The rest is about 60 ounces of water a day.

I have a story for you.
Due to very bad dental care, I avoided Dentist for about ten years. My wife found this terrific dentist and got me to go and do a dental makeover for $14,000 after insurance. During the course of all this work, I asked how business is. He said terrific. I said how come. Well, he said, all these kids and adults suck around on all this pop and soda. It ruins their teeth.
Well, that cured me of my coke addiction. Have not touched one for two years. I like to have good teeth and I do not like to spend that much money to fix teeth.

why is everyone down on diet soda? There is not a shread of scientific evidence that it will hurt you. I can see drinking it on a long ride but I dont think its any worse than coffee or large amounts of tea. Now the sugar laden regular soda is another story. You may as well put your dentist on the deed for your house if you let your kids drink all that.

why is everyone down on diet soda? There is not a shread of scientific evidence that it will hurt you. I can see drinking it on a long ride but I dont think its any worse than coffee or large amounts of tea. Now the sugar laden regular soda is another story. You may as well put your dentist on the deed for your house if you let your kids drink all that.

FWIW:

http://www.newstarget.com/004416.html

"Many general dietary factors have been suggested as a cause of osteoporosis, including: low calcium-high phosphorus intake, high-protein diet, high-acid-ash diet, high salt intake, and trace mineral deficiencies. It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis. A deficiency of vitamin K leads to impaired mineralization of bone. Boron deficiency may contribute greatly to osteoporosis as well as to menopausal symptoms."

"Soft drinks have long been suspected of leading to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood. When phosphate levels are high and calcium levels are low, calcium is pulled out of the bones. The phosphate content of soft drinks like Coca -Cola and Pepsi is very high, and they contain virtually no calcium."

"The United States ranks first among countries in soft drink consumption. The per-capita consumption of soft drinks is in excess of 150 quarts per year, or about three quarts per week."

"Soft drink consumption in children poses a significant risk factor for impaired calcification of growing bones."

"Of the fifty-seven children who had low blood calcium levels, thirty-eight (66.7 percent) drank more than four bottles (12 to 16 ounces per bottle) of soft drinks per week, but only forty-eight (28 percent) of the 171 children with normal serum calcium levels consumed as much soft drink … These results more than support the contention that soft drink consumption leads to lower calcium levels in children. This situation that ultimately leads to poor bone mineralization, which explains the greater risk of broken bones in children who consume soft drinks."

"Soft drink consumption may be a major factor for osteoporosis as they are high in phosphates but contain virtually no calcium. This leads to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood. The United States ranks first among countries for soft drink consumption with a per capita consumption of approximately 15 ounces a day." James A Howenstine M.D.
A Physician's Guide to Natural Health Products That Work

why is everyone down on diet soda? There is not a shread of scientific evidence that it will hurt you.

That may be true, but there are many many stories of people reporting difficulties with diet sodas. Who is conducting 20 year double blind tests on each of these diet soda types? How long has this stuff been out? I don't even know of any 5 year double blind scientific studies in progress, do you?

Surely you don't always believe marketing hype that XYZ is just terrific for you all.

See the problem is the converse is also true, there is not a shread of scientific evidence that drinking diet sodas for 5 years will NOT hurt you. Since scientific evidence is both lacking and no one is conducting scientific studies, and too many are reporting hearsay accounts of difficulties with diet soda, why increase your risk of problems down the road?

I used to drink diet cokes all day long.

Now I drink Propel, which is a "Fitness" water made by Gatorade. It is slightly fruit flavored and seriously addictive. In a good way.

I drink 4 500 ml bottles a day. More when riding.

BCC

This is how I do it.
I am not even suggesting it is any better than any other ideas or methods or that it will even work for you.

I just decide in my mind that I will have it no more, and then I hold myself to that decision. No tapering off at all, just quit.

It has worked for me for the following things.
Cigarettes
Soda pop
Pastry
My ex wife
Country music

60 zillion people drink diet soda every day. I believe if there was anything dangerous about it ar least to 4 significant digits the do gooders would have it banned by now like red dye number 5 for Marichino cherries. There is just a lot more to obsess about than diet soda. And if thats Gary's only vice I don't think it will hurt him (IMHO). Risk factors that are more or less proven statistically in more or less random order are smoking, weight, exercise, or lack there of, dietary deficiencies such as fiber and of course riding past golf courses on a3 month old Medone...Descents in excess of 8% and 500 yards should be in there someplace.

If you are quitting soda, you also need to quit orange juice. It's liquid sugar and keeps the sugar want going, which leads you to more soda. bk

We are just sharing information without a commercial interest (at least in my case).

Regarding Diet Coke my thinking goes like this:
I need water.
I like the buzz from caffeine.

Diet Coke supplies also things which are suspect:
Aspartame (see Google)
Sodium (there is too much already in our preserved foods)
Citric acid (my digestive system does not like it)
Coloring (stains my shirts and teeth)

Therefore, why put all this in my system? There is good tasting spring water and for caffeine there is coffee.
Agree there are more important issues but what is the harm in exchanging views?

Just MHO.

So -- what have you done? Switched to juice? Quit soda cold turkey? Gone to ice tea? What's the number for Soda Anonymous -- and how does one get a sponsor?[/QUOTE]

Rum.

I used to drink quite a lot of Dr. Pepper. Now my wife and daughter and I drink only Diet Rite soda. It's sweetened with Splenda and it has no caffiene and no sodium.

Coffee, tea, 1% milk, and water for me. After a ride, it's whey protein mixed in 1% milk. Even before I quit smoking and started riding, I dumped the soda habit.

No strategies here.I teach 10 year olds. Once a year I stop by my dentist's office and he gives me some teeth he's pulled...usually nice ones. They're surprizingly big with the roots and all.

Anyway, back in the classroom, we soak them in mason jars filled with coke, pepsi, etc. At the end of a week we fish them out. Invariably they are pitted and stained. At the end of two weeks they have become cratered. Good lesson for the kids.

Ahh Nuts!!!! When a person drinks a can of 'pop' or 'soda' it's not the same as soaking the teeth for a week in the stuff. Between swigs, your saliva washes the acids away...hell, I'm 63 and I love regular Pepsi, no diet for me please, and my teeth aren't at all pitted or stained either. I'll never quit 'cause I need that good old buzz I get from the sugar....Yee Haw!!!!

I still like an occasional Pepsi BUT we substituted seltzer water. It is cheap at Safeway, it provides all the satisfying fizz with no calories or the annoying phosphoric acid (used to buffer the CO2 to keep it in solution) and artificial sweeteners!

Big thing in the UK right now about junk food. I do enjoy the occasional burger and Fries or even a Fat laden K.F.C. However these are now frowned on over here as not being healthy and the weight problem that they cause. The fast food outlets are taking a hit now, and in my opinion about time too. Seems funny that the latest Soda posting has co-incided with a Soda issue in the UK. All that sugar and in a very easy to digest form. I Feel lucky as my drink of choice now is water- quickly followed by coffee and Wine, but that is another issue.