a confession!!

I'm addicted to any kind of soft drink except 7-UP, which I don't like the taste of.

Wow, that is a lot. I'm glad you "fessed up" and are trying to lessen it Good job

I wouldn't say I'm addicted to pop, I enjoy diet pops (ginger ale, 7-up) but don't miss them much when I don't have them. But, my pops don't have caffeine in them....and caffeine can cause dependency issues, which you've found out.

Personally, I would try to wean down if you can..... it would help the withdrawal effects (headaches n' such). All good things in moderation right.... if you could get down to one or two (cans) a day, that would be great.

Good luck Mariyah

Originally Posted by Nekomania

Diet Rite....

0 Sugar, 0 Calories, 0 Caffiene, and 0 Sodium. The sodium is a double bonus for me because I try to avoid excess salt in my diet as well.

If you have to get addicted to Soda, give Diet Rite a try if you haven't, their Cola is pretty good. =) It's almost as good for you as drinking water would be, except it contains aspartame... ^^; But the only negative thing that it has on me is that it makes me crave REAL sugar and that can be a hard urge to fight.

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When was the last time you looked at the sweetener they used? The only diet pop I drink is Diet Rite, because around here it's all Splenda. I can't drink aspartame because it gives me nasty headaches. But Splenda is OK with my body.

But the only flavor I really like is the red raspberry. I'm not a huge fan of the other ones. Really cheesed me when Target stopped carrying that flavor.

OK, I'm going to go contraflow here, just for a reality check.

1. High-fructose corn syrup is no worse than sugar. In fact, once it's in your body it IS sugar. Metabolized the same way, etc. I know some have blamed it for American obesity, and that may be true, but not because of what it is, but rather because of how much of it we eat. It's in everything, including cat food.

A 20-oz soda has the equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar in it. When Coke first came out, it was in 8-oz bottles. Then it changed to 10 ounces ("Ten full ounces, that's a lot!" Actual Coke advertisement.) In the seventies, the standard became the 12-oz can. Not the standard is the 20-oz bottle. But if you read the nutritional information, it still gives the info for a 10-oz serving, saying the bottle is 2 servings.

2. Of all the common and addictive drugs in use in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter), caffeine is probably one of the least dangerous. Although in massive doses it can do you damage, in the doses most of us get (and, again, there is caffeine in all sorts of stuff), it is usually actually beneficial. It's much better and safer than nicotine or alcohol, and all three drugs are usually regarded as "self-medication" by psychiatrists.

I drink a couple of diet sodas per day. I've known truck drivers who drink a case of 12-oz cans per day.

All that said, there will always be people who are sensitive to any compound, and caffeine can have a very bad effect on a few people.

I drink a lot of Pepsi. I have completely given it up, several times for weeks and months on end - I do not get caffeine withdrawals that everyone goes on about. But then again, I have headaches nearly 24/7 so I wouldn't notice if I did.

My problem is that I haven't found anything other than water that I can really drink. I can only drink juice and tea in small amounts otherwise I get very nauseous. You'd think the Pepsi would be worse... I hate citrus flavors, oranges have to have one of the nastiest flavors, closely followed by bananas.

Milk - I have to buy lactose free milk. It's expensive.
I cannot have any artificial sweeteners, they make me sick.


Like you (utopia) I do rely on sugars too much...


And there's another reason I do rely on the caffeine. It's a vasoconstrictor. My midodrine cost $52 a prescription with insurance, if I take it as I should it would that would be 4 to 6 pills a day. Caffeine makes it were I can take less pills and take them less often. While the caffeine can't be good for my tachycardia, my low blood pressure is even worse and is the main cause for it.
Short of taking even more medication there's nothing I can do to help this. My mother deals with hers by smoking... I'd rather stick with caffeine.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

My problem is that I haven't found anything other than water that I can really drink. I can only drink juice and tea in small amounts otherwise I get very nauseous.

You'd think the Pepsi would be worse... I hate citrus flavors, oranges have to have one of the nastiest flavors, closely followed by bananas.

Milk - I have to buy lactose free milk. It's expensive.
I cannot have any artificial sweeteners, they make me sick.

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I have the same problem..I hate all citrus flavors especially orange juice,I find it to be the worst..It's like pure acid yuck, and same with gatorade, it tastes too sour/salty - i mean I know it's supposed to since it has salts to provide electrolytes but I hate the taste.
I can stand grape juice, apple juice and milk but they only make me drink something else (diet coke) immediately afterward to wash off that flavor...
I'm hoping diluting them with water will tone down the flavor and make them better...

Maybe I'm a little paranoid about this stuff being so terrible for me, I can understand how it can be good in moderation but I dunno, it seems like drinking so much of anything is scary..
Like, one of my biology professors told a story about how he got kidney stones from eating too many pears since he grew them in his gardens and it was all he ate for a while..

All he ate?... crazy

I can drink a little of the fruit punch gatorade, I'm supposed to be drinking a lot of it daily. But yes, it taste nasty.

There are some fruit juice mixes, but they have HFCS and/or sugar in them. They taste better than just one type of juice, but even they start tasting overpowering and upset my stomach. Kiwi strawberry is ok for a glass or two occasionally.

I'm guessing, like me, you were raised on sweeter stuff? Drink wise. And just can't handle really tart or bitter stuff very well. Genetics also play a part in whether or not a person can eat and actually enjoy bitter foods.
I think I'm a moderate taster for bitterness, since I like a lot of veggies. But my hypersensitive sense of smell makes some things impossible to eat.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I'm guessing, like me, you were raised on sweeter stuff? Drink wise. And just can't handle really tart or bitter stuff very well. Genetics also play a part in whether or not a person can eat and actually enjoy bitter foods.
I think I'm a moderate taster for bitterness, since I like a lot of veggies. But my hypersensitive sense of smell makes some things impossible to eat.

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oh yea, growing up my drink of choice was always strawberry/chocolate milk, hot chocolate, things like that. And the nesquick chocolate milk we had was wayy sweeter than most of the chocolate milks in grocery stores I find now. When I came to the US they had chocolate milk at the school cafeteria and I remember thinking "what is that" cuz to me it was like regular milk with a very faint taste of chocolate.

I think I've made the decision to sacrifice aspartame for HFCS and sugar so I'm going with the fruit juices..I'll stick to grape because it's the one I can tolerate the most. Aspartame is just scary to me..

Yes, yes it is.. Some do tolerate it better than others, though.

For your other drinks, there is a new natural sweetener out made with stevia that should be available. I wonder if anyone here has tried it?


My school cafeteria milk always tasted chalky or spoiled. Less chocolately would have been better than that.
I think Nesquick chocolate mix adds a tiny bit of cinnamon, and maybe coconut? That's sort of the smell and taste I pick up from it.

Beware of the headaches from Diet Coke withdrawal!!! I use to drink Diet Coke all the time (I'm talking probably 3-4 12oz. cans a day though, ) and when I stopped I got the absolute worst headaches. I think it's from the aspartame since I was still drinking caffeine.... I'll still go from one every once in awhile, but now just drinking them gives me headaches! I think it's a lot to do with the mental effect though.

Originally Posted by CatNurse22

Beware of the headaches from Diet Coke withdrawal!!! I use to drink Diet Coke all the time (I'm talking probably 3-4 12oz. cans a day though,

) and when I stopped I got the absolute worst headaches. I think it's from the aspartame since I was still drinking caffeine.... I'll still go from one every once in awhile, but now just drinking them gives me headaches! I think it's a lot to do with the mental effect though.

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That was likely caffeine withdraw - even though you were drinking coffee, without the soda you probably reduced your caffeine intake considerably. Caffeine withdraw gives the worst headaches.

Originally Posted by carolinalima

Caffeine withdraw gives the worst headaches.

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Personally, I think screeching young children cause the worst headaches, followed by an out of tune 5th grade band class and other migraine triggers.

If that was the worst headaches you've ever had, consider yourself lucky!

Originally Posted by ut0pia

Hi, I'm Mariya....
and I'm a diet coke addict!!!!

Seriously though, I always talk about how I'm addicted to diet coke, in the weight loss thread and elsewhere I'm sure- but I never actually said how bad it is. Well I'm going to say it- I drink about 2-3 2 liter bottles of diet coke every day. I don't drink any water at all or any other liquids. I've been like this for about a year and I honestly think it's like an addiction, because if I don't have it I get very frustated and I start to daydream about how i'm going to buy a bottle of diet coke and I'll hear the fizzzing as it opens and everything will okay as soon as I take the first sip...
I don't like any other sodas, not dr. pepper or mountain dew or even any other diet drinks. I actually find all other diet sodas very nasty and leaving a bad aftertaste, including coke zero...

So I have decided that I've had it with this madness. I bought all kinds of juices- grape, apple, cranberry- the kind that are sweetened with real sugar, and I plan to dilute them with water so that I can start getting water...

Anyone else addicted to anything so random??? I'd love to hear about it

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My mother is also highly addicted to this substance. She had a recent battle with cancer, where they told her to drastically cut back if she could not quit. They didn't even consider it a liquid suitable to count as a drink.
I call it a substance because there is nothing natural or "good" about this liquid with the made made "stuff" in it. It also has caffeine, which acts like a diuretic. And if you aren't drinking enough water, this will do a lot of damage to you over time.
It is sweetened with aspartame, which IMO isn't safe and it is artificial/chemical and made man, and which hasn't been around long enough to assess the damage it does on a person long term, since "Diet Coke" came out around the mid 1980's. What we do know isn't really encouraging.
Hope this helps you kick your habit that you say you have had it with the madness lol
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/
Good luck.
Maybe you can try a big glass of ice water with some sprigs of fresh mint from a garden (or store) and a slice of lemon.

Originally Posted by cococat

My mother is also highly addicted to this substance. She had a recent battle with cancer, where they told her to drastically cut back if she could not quit. They didn't even consider it a liquid suitable to count as a drink.
I call it a substance because there is nothing natural or "good" about this liquid with the made made "stuff" in it. It also has caffeine, which acts like a diuretic. And if you aren't drinking enough water, this will do a lot of damage to you over time.
It is sweetened with aspartame, which IMO isn't safe and it is artificial/chemical and made man, and which hasn't been around long enough to assess the damage it does on a person long term, since "Diet Coke" came out around the mid 1980's. What we do know isn't really encouraging.
Hope this helps you kick your habit that you say you have had it with the madness lol
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/
Good luck.
Maybe you can try a big glass of ice water with some sprigs of fresh mint from a garden (or store) and a slice of lemon.

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Thanks for that link, I found it very helpful. This really shocked me:

Since aspartame can be very addicting, it is not a good idea to cut out both aspartame and caffeine at the same time. Aspartame is far more toxic and should be eliminated immediately. Be aware that aspartame withdrawal symptoms can last anywhere from a few days to several weeks.

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Apparently aspartame itself is addicting There was also a list of foods and medicine with aspartame and I was surprised to see in how many things it is that aren't even sugar free.
I am drinking coffee even though I don't like it too much to get some caffeine..But yea I am really determined to stop drinking diet coke, I've stopped many times before but I never found anything to replace it with. I am going to chew a lot of gum whenever I feel like I need diet coke so that should help distract me.
It is shocking that your mom's doctors told her to cut back if she cannot quit...I would not be surprised if aspartame turns out carcinogenic after they are able to research it more, as well as all the other negative effects it causes..

Originally Posted by cococat

It also has caffeine, which acts like a diuretic. And if you aren't drinking enough water, this will do a lot of damage to you over time.

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This is false! Look up new studies - or any studies.
Researchers have found that caffeine containing liquirds only have a very mild diuretic effect - much the same effect as water.

How about caffeine (in coffee, since it has more than other drinks) helping with/lowering risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, among other things? No one ever mentions this...

Originally Posted by emrldsky

When was the last time you looked at the sweetener they used? The only diet pop I drink is Diet Rite, because around here it's all Splenda. I can't drink aspartame because it gives me nasty headaches. But Splenda is OK with my body.

But the only flavor I really like is the red raspberry. I'm not a huge fan of the other ones. Really cheesed me when Target stopped carrying that flavor.

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I was under the impression that Splenda contained Aspartame? I could be wrong, maybe I am thinking of something else... Isn't splenda the one that comes in the pink package?

Oh and my favorite flavor is White Grape

Originally Posted by Nekomania

I was under the impression that Splenda contained Aspartame? I could be wrong, maybe I am thinking of something else... Isn't splenda the one that comes in the pink package?

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Splenda is usually in little yellow packets that say Splenda. It doesn't contain aspartame, it's it's own sweetener.



None of the artificial sweeteners are good. Do you know that waste treatment plants can't remove all of the sweeteners from the sewage they treat? This means it is going back out into the water supply - into oceans, lakes, rivers and is affecting plant and animal life there.
There are on going studies for this right now to see just how much damage it is causing. There's concern about it affecting algae's CO2 uptake.

I didn't know any of that.

As bad as that is, it wont stop me from using splenda just because I want to cut as much sugar out of my diet as possible.

Look up different alternatives. Less regular sugar, honey, stevia.

Once again, a reality fact check.

Only the equivalent of the "black helicopter" crowd believes that aspartame and saccharine (and Splenda, for that matter) are addictive, according to the definition of the word. If you use the broader definition, then they might be, but so would a baby's pacifier be addictive to the baby.

There ARE those who believe that high-fructose corn syrup is a conspiracy between Con-Agra and the Communists to make Americans so fat they'll accept a government run health system. Unfortunately, it's possible to find people who will believe, or say they believe, almost anything.

That said, there are those who are sensitive to almost any chemical compound.

And yes, eating a boxcar load of saccharine every day would double your chance of getting cancer.