I've been hearing so much lately about how bad Diet soft drinks are & especially aspartame, so I'm going to try & make the change to give it up! Now, for some people - that wouldn't be a problem - but I LOVE my Diet drinks. My favorite is Diet Big Red with Diet Coke right behind & I thought I was doing pretty good thinking its got Splenda in it & not the aspartame - but come to find out - still not so good!
But looking at the horrible things that diet drinks do - its surprising. First of all - the artificial sweetener is supposed to make you crave more foods! HUH? That's the point - to save calories but in the end, you may be taking more in! Plus, the chemicals are also bad for your teeth & for women its suppose to eat away at the calcium in your bones - not good! And I heard last night that aspartame is actually very close to rat poison too! Oh - that's discouraging!
So I've been buying my water bottles & getting the little individual mixes you can pour into them to add some flavor (who thought of those? High five!) but I've also been liking the Lipton Diet Green Tea - but guess what - that has aspartame in it too - DARN IT!
The hardest thing for me - I'm not a coffee drinker. I love the smell of it but the taste of it - not so much & my morning Diet Coke is my "coffee" - its what gets me going in the morning! And then of course, I need another boost at lunch time & then I need one to get me through the rest of the afternoon....what a vicious cycle. Needless to say, I'm going to try & break the habit. The bad things - habits can be very hard to break sometimes!
So wish me luck! Hopefully I'll eventually cut them all together! I keep saying if Ricky can do it - I can do it - but he's much more stubborn than me (its true!) That man use to drink literally a case of Pepsi's a day! Honest! Then when he was diagnosed with his Barrett's Esophagus, he gave them up - cold turkey! The only thing he drinks now is water or tea or Vitamin Water! I never thought he could do it! So at least I know its possible! Now, its just doing it! UGH!
It's giving up that caffeine part that's the kicker. You can do it - if I can manage to give up sodas (regular or diet), anyone can do it.
ReplyDelete1 apple will give you as much pep as coffee or soda and is much better for you. I take tea bags into work and drink that and it has caffeine.
ReplyDeleteAspartame gives me crazy migraines...not good for you!!
You can do it...I did...cold turkey years ago and I'm so glad I did!!
Dear Rebecca Jo and all,
ReplyDeleteIf you have an urge for diet soda or chewing gum, take a look at these graphic photos from a private study on aspartame.
Thanks for letting me post.
http://myaspartameexperiment.com
Kudos to you for simply making the decision to cut these out of your diet. That's one of the hardest steps.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have headaches for a couple of days, but push through. Drink a lot of water. That will flush your system quicker.
Also, try taking a look at other items in your house. Did you know that toothpaste has artificial sweeteners? Yep. I couldn't believe it. Every national brand at the store has it. I get my toothpaste from the health food store now.
The way I look at it, let your body handle the sugar...the real stuff. It's much less potent than that other stuff.
Good luck, dear. You'll feel so much better in a week.
I like Coke Zero, but not nearly as much as I like regular Pepsi so it's not real hard for me to miss the diet drinks. I just count the calories in for the regular soda and enjoy without overindulging. And coffee is delicious so it is another drink outlet for me.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteThis is some crazy stuff.
Check out the information that is on the website http://myaspartameexperiment.com
That is really eye opening.