Those of you who are doing the BWS diet know I drink my share of diet soda.

A friend recently told me that for every 8 ounces of diet soda you drink, you need to drink 64 ounces of water to rid your body of the poisins. I must be ready to blow!

Not only do I drink diet, I drink caffeine free, diet. A friend at a dinner once asked me, "Well, if it's diet and caffeine free, what are you drinking it for?"

I drink it because of the sweet taste, it has no calories, and it has no caffeine.
We got hooked on it because my husband is a diabetic and it was something he could have.

We have heard for years that it's bad for us. It has to do with the aspertame getting hot while the products sit in factories, trucks and store shelves.

Another bad habit we have to break.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I too am hooked on diet drinks. Water is good for you I suppose, but like all other things good for you, it's BORING.
I've recently come across something that is kind of like diet soda, in that it has fizz and no calories, but it also has no sodium which other diet soda's are loaded with. As you probably know sodium causes water retention and muscle weakness which means when you die from the aspartame, you'll be limp and bloated. Not good.

Anyway, I've been drinking Clear America from Walmart. It looks like water and only has a slight sweet fruity taste so I think I'm doing a good thing for my body despite the fact that it is also loaded with aspartame which I understand will eventually kill you. (Also, like the name says, Clear Americal is "clear." Looks just like water so you can carry it around like those health nuts who carry bottled water every where they go.
The aspartame may be killing you, but at least you'll look cool)

And like the words to that Bob Gibson/Shel Silverstein song, "You can stop cokin and tokin and exercise that cellulite right off of your thighs, but sooner or later, you're still gonna' die."
Onward!
smile

Smilinize, you are a riot. I too drink Clear America at times but am HOOKED on Diet A&W Root Beer which has sodium and aparateme. Yes and water is Boring alone!! I also buy at Wal-Mart sugar free and excellent tasting kool-aid. A box have 4 packages and comes in many delicious flavors.($2.89) If you're worried about the aparatame, buy the kind in the larger can, with no sugar added, and you can add your own sweetner. (Try Stevia+ it has fiber too)and tastes just like sugar, no after taste either. This way you get plenty of water, little sodium, NO aparatame and a delicious drink. I also make ice cubes out of it and add them to keep it cold and flavorful or just put in a stick and you have a kool-pop. I NEVER buy any beverage in aluminum cans either, once the medical journals I research talked about Alzheimers and aluminum cans,NO more aluminum cans for me. Make your kool-aid in a big glass sun tea pitcher. The A&W comes in large plastic bottles. Seriously folks, try the sugar free kool-aid you'll be glad you did.

I've gone back and forth on the aspertame thing and ya know, if it isn't one thing it's another. I've tried really hard to eliminate so many things that are bad for me... like the soda cans. I buy my sodas in bottles. And, I drink flavored water, sugar free of course. My favorite is the white grape.

I'm like you Dots, I drink the diet/caffiene free stuff. And, it's because of the taste.. nothing else. Oh, I like the carbonation too.

I drink the crystal light lemonade (only 5 calories in a bottle) once in a while. It's pretty sweet.

More products are coming out with Splenda instead of aspertame. You know, you can use it with your unsweetened koolaid instead of buying the sugar free stuff.

I'm really enjoying my support group on the BWS diet. Just knowing I have to tell someone what I ate makes me think twice and sometimes three times (if I get tempted )

Thanks for your thoughts ladies. I decided I should probably try another artificailly sweetened drink, or just drink water with lemon. I love that.

When I food shopped this week I thought about all the money we spend on drinks. Milk, o.j., lite juices for Ross and Jess, sodas, flavored waters for Jess, Gatorade, and bottled water for them to take to school. Isn't that crazy? Just think of the money we could save if we drank water all the time.

I'm on a new campaign around the household...
Water for everyone!

We like to get different kinds of sparkling waters, like from different countries.

Another good suggestion. I'm considering not buying soda for home and only having it when we are out. One way to cut back.

Does anyone have a Sonic Drive In? I love their diet cherry limeades. They may have a few calories because they have a marachino cherry and a couple of slices of lime in them. Of course I don't eat them so...

My husband knows how I like those so if I'm tired he always drives through for one and it always picks me right up. Makes me happy too.

If you have a Sonic, try one. YUM.
smile

Oh Smile you've hit on a weakness of mine the number 1 at Sonic Drive-In. Vegas has alot of them located at every strategic part of the valley. Theres one only 5 blocks from my home. I think they must be up to a dozen wonderful, ice cold tasty drinks by now. The flavors escape me but next time my grandson and I drive through I'm going to get a list. I do know you won't find these yummy treats anywhere but Sonic.

Mmmmm. I love Sonic, but I bet just driving by is about 2,000 calories.
BWS dieters are watching you!!
smile

No Sonics here and I think that's a good thing.

I was exercising next to a woman who has had half her stomach removed. She's lost 90+ pounds. She's at Curves 6 days a week...a real inspiration.

We were talking about diet soad and she mentioned something I hadn't thought about. SODIUM!

It's possible the diet soda we're drinking is keeping us from losing weight because we're retaining all this fluid.

More incentive to say no to diet soda!

good point, Dotsie.. the sodium.. and don't forget the caffiene.. for those who like the colas. Caffiene makes you retain fluid as well.

I'm going to try that Fruit2o that was mentioned in our diet list. It has Splenda and sounds YUMMY!

I haven't been getting my diet e-mail, Dots. I think when Scott formatted the hard drive I lost all addresses and everything...so if you've sent it to me, can you send it again? I think it's okay now..... maybe... and thank goodness that the earliest I will get it will be tomorrow......geeze....I had a hamburger today...and chips.......I haven't had either of those things in months and months.....and the worst part....they were good and I LOVED them. So I can't eat THAT again tomorrow.

As for the diet drinks.....I'm SO happy that I love water. We usually buy about 15 gallons of bottled water a week because, since we live in an agricultural area I'm always concerned about the pesticides in the water shelf. A friend of mine has a Brita and her water tastes great so I may just get one of those. But I too love A&W diet root beer. I usually get one two-liter bottle and have a glass and then it mysteriously disappears even though the two boys at home and the husband NEVER see who drinks it... amazing...

Well... I'm ready to get on the diet newsletter... and so far today I've eaten 278 sunflower seeds. I'll have to drink 12 glasses of water before I go to bed just to combat the salt headache that will surely come in the morning.

Welcome Dreamer, Glad to have you aboard! It is a lot of fun and great support. I think of the BWS diet group whenever I eat. Even on my day off, I am careful not to overdo.

Report in later.

Sherri

Ak!!!
I just typed my reply & lost it!!!

I am trying to break the diet soda habit right now. I have 2 bottles of the WM water...and might try em tomorrow!!!

My cousin went to a nutritionist who put her on a diet--and she could only drink distilled water--and eat as organically as she could. YOU SAW AN AMAZING DIFFERENCE in her.

We're working on the water thing.......let's not get too crazy!!!

The only time I drink soda is at the movies with a bag of popcorn. Otherwise, I never touch it. Just not my thing.

When we moved to TN something I found interesting was when you order iced tea and they ask sweetened or unsweetened.

Seems now that Splenda is bad for you. What's next? I drink a lot of V8's...love those suckers...but I just turned the can around and noticed there are 880 mg of sodium in each can.

So we shouldn't drink anything with caffeine, we shouldn't use Splenda, and we shouldn't drink diet cokes. We can drink water BUT...only IF it is purified.

I'm thinking knowing my luck, I would follow all of this to a T, and then walk out my door and get hit by a truck.

Forget it...I'm going to get another cup of java...

JJ

I checked the bottle of my WM water...and it has one of those sweeteners I can't spell in it!!

I'm just going to have to limit my diet soda intake....and carry a gallon bottle of water with me otherwise!

So why do we all crave sweet things? No one seems to know for sure.
I wonder if it might be something to do with the sweet taste of mother's milk. Craving that would help us survive as babies, but why as adults?

I think humans are the only mammals who continue to drink milk after infancy. Some researchers are trying to link drinking milk after infancy to diabetes because civilizations that do not do so also do not develop diabetes. ??

There are also some theories about an overgrowth of fungi in our gut that lives off sugar and causes us to crave it. The theory is that fungi develops to a pathological state as a result of the antibiotics we take in from medication and from meats from animals fed antibiotics in order to fatten them quickly.

I know, T M I.

Anyone else have any ideas why we crave the sweets that seem so bad for us?
smile

Yuk, pooey everything is bad for us it seems. JJ I think that truck might not be a bad idea after all at least its a quick end and not as slow as rotting to death from within...ick!!!

"craving" is a misused term, taken hostage by the dieting industry where the meaning of the word has been lost...
we don't crave sweets that are bad for us over sweets that are good for us...people crave water when they're thirsty and food when they're hungry...what we do when we pick one food over another is show our preferences, not our cravings...no one ever craved a snickers bar (til the snickers' people told us we did) and no one preferred a snickers bar over an orange until they'd had both -- but only if the snickers came in its colorful packaging; i'd venture to guess that the first time someone came across a snickers-like confection with no idea how it tasted, they viewed it with the same disdain you would have for a pile of dung not yet smelled...without the ad agency behind it, a snickers bar is just a brown lump...

the more relevant question is "what drives our preferences?" and clearly advertising is at the wheel...
to compare the advertising of strawberries and snickers bars -- well, you can't really because only one is actually advertised...one tasting better than the other depends on what we prefer which is largely determined by what we choose most often...even if you thought to eat strawberries instead, you gotta hand it to snickers bars: they're easier to access, easier to store, available year round, more filling, ready-to-eat, not gonna mold after a week in the fridge, and less expensive...additionally, snickers has a whole lot more advertising dollar behind it what with flashy and colorful commercials, packaging, and variety...none of that has anything to do with how it tastes but it sure does something for the decision making process...
it's simply easier and more financially feasible to grab a snickers bar -- so, many people do...
if snickers advertised with their nutrition label instead of their colorful logo, they'd be in a hurt wouldn't they?

but even for the newly informed consumers who have already tasted the sweet nectar that is high fructose corn syrup and trans fat, buying sugarless, low-cal, low-fat, foods and drinks is their way of, pardon the pun, getting their cake and eating it too...

people develop a liking for what is most readily available and most financially feasible...putting aside one or both in favor of nutrition is a relatively recent dilemma for the human diet...when just about everyone farmed, just about everyone had readily available fresh fruit and vegetables...prep time wasn't an issue because there was no choice between what they had and something else -- there was nothing else...now, just about everyone buys from the store where one aisle of fruits and vegetables must compete with several other aisles of food that can be prepared in a very short period of time for a lot less money...

time and money, while important considerations, aren't nearly as important as one's health...unfortunately, we see our time and money slipping away at a much faster rate than our health so we put more effort into conserving the former at a cost to the latter...

[ July 28, 2005, 04:07 AM: Message edited by: msdiana ]

unique, I was totally with you on the canned veggie thing -- I consider canned green beans to be a special type of abomination -- but I see frozen veggies as a way to eat things out of season. Otherwise, I buy fresh fruits and veggies mostly in season, whatever's on sale. I'll also put in my usual plug for local farmers' markets. Everything is so much fresher than at the big stores.

My husband does the bulk of the grocery shopping so sometimes the most convenient food is whatever he had 12 coupons for. However, I make it a point to have fresh produce.

Good nutritional food is a priority here. I think it's too important to do without.

Unique, I learned from studying extensively the health of vegetables that they are picked fresh in the fields cleaned thoroughly and "flash frozen" which is the halthiest process possible. This way most all the nutrients and flavor remain. I doubt anyone, even someone with an unlimited food budget could eat all the veges and fruits on those food pyramids. I think sometimes its not how much of the good stuff we eat but how much of the bad stuff we do not eat that governs our overall health!

I know flash frozen is the *best* for preserving nutrients - they just don't taste right (to me) because I'm used to fresh. I do buy frozen peas to add to pasta salad, etc. Sometimes other frozen veg to *hide* in a recipe - but just to eat plain, as in a side dish - only green peas & corn make the cut.

chatty, great point about the good and bad foods.

This time of year we have a local Farmer's Market. It's one of the highlights of my week. The atmoshpere is friendly, fun, and contagious. The fruits and veggies are to die for. Do any of you shop at local farmer's markets?

We miss my uncle's trips out east to the farm stands. (he has passed) My cousin brought us peaches from Georgia....and I could have eaten them for breakfast-lunch & dinner!!!

We luckily have quite afew produce places around here that sell fruits & veggies for less....and the quality is decent.

We are going to try and plant a garden next summer. Now that we ripped the hideous bushes out & have room!!!

We also miss my uncle's garden.....his backyard was huge! He had veggies in one section--and the rest was out of a magazine with flowers/rocks/plants!!!

Theres one outside in Henderson NV all summer and its great. Thats one of the things I miss about the Midwest, the summer markets and the apple orchards and pumpkin fields later in the year.

I used to work with a woman who lost 5 lbs just by eliminating diet soda from her diet. She began to drink iced tea instead.

I do like my diet coke.

Makes you think!
Daisygirl

Hi Ladybug! I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you. I got your email but was too busy to reply yesterday and today, hotmail is not working! I will respond ASAP.
We do seem to have a lot in common. I do not take any medications either, and I have heard all that stuff about the milk and what the hormones do to young girls. I have never liked diet soda and I only consume soda maybe once every couple of months. I basically drink water,
except for my morning coffee, and the occassional margarita! The only time I have milk is in my coffee and if I have a little raisin bran for breakfast. I walk almost every morning and I believe I'm in good health. It sounds like we have very similar views on health and spiritual issues, too. I look forward to getting to know yoou even better!

Yes I got the letter. I'm still trying to get to my email.
You walk way more than I do! I usually average around 2 miles, 5 - 6 times a week.
My daughter and son-in-law are vegetarians and they are rasing their 2 year old that way. I agree with you on the "fake" vegetarians. Why don't they just tell people they don't eat pork or red meat (most likely if they eat chicken, they eat fish).

ladybug, i have two diabetics in the family so we do diet drinks and fake sweeterers galore. We must change this.

I've never heard of Sweet Poison. I'm going to look it up on Amazon right now. Thanks for the information...

What Are YOU Drinking?

Hi Everyone, I am new to this forum and was reading posts on various topics when I came across yours.

Because I am new, I do not want to 'push my own barrow' so to speak... but your discussion on water is relevant to a website concerning a natural water additive that I have recently become involved in and I would like to share this with you. The information makes for very interesting reading and most definately gives food for thought.

The main thing is that the water in our body (and there is a lot of it) should be alkaline but, because of what we put into it, our body tends to be too acidic.

Here are a couple of bits from the website.

Purified Bottled Water? Purified Water is stripped of all the important minerals your body needs. It actually flushes out the beneficial ones that are already there. 'Purified Water' literally takes 'good health' away from you.

ACIDIC Sports Drinks? From dietary choices, people everywhere are generally "too acidic", which is a breeding ground for ill health and
disease.

If anyone is interested in further details and/or a link to the site please make contact with me. I do Hope I haven't broken any 'taboo' rules with this post.

*cheers*
mordeeau
(Daphne in Australia)

I haven't used my juicer as much as I'd like, but I love to. When I did not have that, I used my blender to make juice drinks.

One of my favorites (and it will get your enrgy level thru the roof !) is this: two stalks of celery, two large carrots or 6 or so of the little ones. (now you can also add Kale or Spinach leaves...but you don't have to, it's just a little more Green)...pink grapefruit juice and a little spring water...just eyeball it.

What it will most likely look like is either watery green "sludge" or a thicker concoction, all depends on how much liquid you added. I never really measured it specifically.

But ladies, even if the Green texture turns you off, it is Sweet and to Me, it tastes a bit like Bananas ! You really need to drink it down, not work on it over a long period of time.

Try it and get back to me about how it worked for you....I am curious if it affects anyone else the way it did me !


Happy Juicing !


designergrl

this is true these harmful compositions that these drink its better to drink diet drinks they are much safer to drink . here are some diet drinks for u and i am sure that they will helpful to you as they were to me

I haven't yet been able to give up diet soda or coffee, though I'm always looking for a more healthful variation (and of course I aim for a lot of water each day) that will be tasty. For me, I've found that a big glass of herb iced tea, sweetened with 1 packet of Stevia or Splenda, with ice, is very refreshing. I've been using Celestial Seasonings's fruity teas---I bought a variety pack and love them. (I tried making herb tea witih some of their non-fruity ones and frankly didn't like them, but that of course is just personal taste).

Try low sodium seltzer water. Thats what I tried when I gave up diet/sugar sodas. I drink from the can so I can't see it. It feels like a real drink. I was reading the book "eat right for your(blood) type" and it suggested this for type O persons...I hope I'm an O!. Of course it also suggested no bagel(my daily breakfast ) or strawberries( my daily snack) and I gave up the strawberries. I love love love bagel w chive cr cheese every morning. Well 2 out of 3 is good. 6 lbs lost and 5 to go.

chick

Lose the cans.....too much verified information out there about aluminum cans and their link to Alzheimers. I drink nothing that was in a can. If you want to hide the fact that its only water get a nice colored glass and use that. You can also add a spoonful of crystal light or sugar free cool aid to the drink to add color and taste. I too like the herbal ice teas.