Been drinking exclusively (give or take) no-sugar caffeinated sodas since a child. Not obese or diabetic. Mid-thirties now. How bad is this?
I’m no doctor, but when I started limiting my beer in-take I drank a lot of seltzer water and I think it helped.
I personally preferred to go the snob route and only drink plain seltzer. But other people seem to like the flavored stuff, idk if that would have the same effect.
Drink some water, dawg. Please.
I reckon 3.5/10 bad.
Not the answer to your question but: Have you tried water? It’s really not that bad. Some even like it.
As for your question: Mayo clinic says “It’s not known if drinking diet soda every day is harmful. The evidence on diet soda’s health effects isn’t clear”. So no one knows, but I thank you for your contribution to this experiment. Hope it works out well.
Yea but what does a mayonaise clinic know about sprite
Yes. It tastes foul. I’m addicted to caffeine. I’ve tried to cut back over the years and I just can’t.
Have you tried various flavored waters or seltzers? Long term the caffeine addiction probably isn’t that great for you either.
You don’t have to go cold turkey, but if I were you I would try to taper down your soda consumption and see how that makes you feel. You may also be slightly dehydrated and a little water (as in flavored waters, if you can handle it) may make you feel a little better.
One of the ways I cut back was to have water sitting next to my soda for the first few months. Just have water right next to it. I would always make sure it was fresh, cold water with ice if possible. I would alternate between them so I was getting more water, but also so I could get used to the taste again.
Now, if I ever have a sweet drink, I follow it up with a glass of water after. Even if you just balance it between the two, it’s better than drinking only soda. Moderation is better than nothing at all.
How about fizzy water? (Carbonated water)
Salt always seems to be added to fizzy water. There’s probably a reason. It’s very noticeable and unpleasant. In other carbonated drinks the saltiness is masked. (All carbonated drinks seem to have salt.)
I’m not convinced drinking seltzer is any better than a no-sugar cola. One still has the concerns of carbon dioxide making bones more brittle. Issues about artificial sweeteners and over consumption of caffeine are removed, but at that point just drink water.
Water isn’t addictive, neither is seltzer, but caffeinated drinks are. This advice to just drink seltzer/water is just as helpful as telling a life-time cigarette smoker, “just suck on a stick and pretend you’re smoking”.
Tap water is genuinely terrible in some areas. Have you tried bottled water?
My family uses a water softening filter on our tap water and it makes it go from awful tasting to pretty good. We just store water in a jug after filtering and it really helps and is far cheaper than bottled water.
I’d at least try to offset it with water and tea.
Might be in the risk zone for gout, depending on diet. I’d drink tea.
Exactly this. It is the reason I got gout.
Yes it is also a genetic predisposition thing but the moment you find out it’s to late.
You can abuse your body a hell of a lot up to that age without too many issues. Those issues will start hitting home within the next decade or so though. Make a change for the better while you can.
probably gonna affect your teeth more than anything… but I’m no doctor
Yea I’m also most worried about dental health, soda is pretty hard on teeth.
Bad. Best regards from your older age.
Water is amazing. It comes out of taps. It’s practically free.
Seems like a recipe for kidney stones and a crippling caffeine dependency.
I had gallstones and my gallbladder was removed. I put that down to malnutrition though.
Sounds like you have some pretty intense diet issues going on, unfortunately.
Its not good. Caffeinated sodas are a diathetic and it will pull water out of your system. Check out ChubbyEmu’s Channel on YouTube for the explanation. If you have been drinking exclusively sodas since a child with no water in take you could be damaging your liver and kidneys. Also I would strongly suggest taking a muti-vitimin daily. Most diet sodas make it harder for you to absorb certain nutrients like folic acid and IIRC B-12.
If you were one of the people that Aspartame is an issue you would know it by know because almost every time you drank soda you would have a headache. You are probably getting more of them just from the dehydration.
Then there are the dental issues. I don’t care how old you are, start using sensodyne and look at having your teeth sealed. Your dentist can do wonders that were not possible 15 years ago, but that will give you issues.
Now a while back there was a thing about sodas and diet sodas raising your risk of Cancer but you would have to drink 6L+ a day. Lower amounts are believed to actually fight against cancer cells in their early stages.
„insulin resistance“ is not an exclusive diabetic issue and not a 0/1 thing. Almost every human is at least a bit insulin resistant.
The more sugar one eats, the more insulin has to be produced by the pancreas and the more „deaf“ cells become to the signal „insulin“.
There’s more effects which I’m not certain enough to comment on here.
Do you suffer any symptoms? (Dry skin, weight, etc) or are you literally the most healthy human right now?
If you suffer any symptoms it might be good to learn more about sugar, as some symptoms might seemingly not be associated with sugar intake but are in reality the root issue of some problems.
I did that. My teeth are ruined, my breath is nearly always bad. I’ve had more root canals than is responsible, and it’s been massively expensive.
Drink water and brush your teeth.
Kidneys and liver hate this one trick.
I did that for a long time and regretted it.
The excess sugar will make your liver store fat as it can’t process it all fast enough. Everything else wrecks your kidneys. Eventually you get to the point where you have to start fixing things, but everything healthy for the liver is bad on the kidneys, and everything good for kidneys is bad for the liver.
For me it was the liver that got me. Luckily I caught it before it became too big a problem. More by coincidence. Fatty liver doesn’t have symptoms until it turns into cirrhosis. By then it’s too late to do anything. My dad wasn’t so lucky and now he is battling dialysis and kidney failure.
It’s ok to have sodas once and a while. After losing 90 pounds and getting into regular exercise I refuse to drink sugary drinks. But I really enjoy sugar free options, like coke zero and such. I try to limit myself to one every other day or less. For context, I used to drink at least 40oz of Mt Dew on top of one or two large energy drinks a day. Once I got started, I don’t even miss it. But oh the headaches that first week.
I’m confused why people keep bringing up sugar when OP says they drink the sugar-free ones.
The acidity from carbonated drinks is not great for your teeth tho.
Yea, I specifically noted the no-sugar content. I don’t like sweet things in general, especially food that’s majority sugar. I’m not an American. Real food exists in my country. I’ve never struggled with weight abundance, but the inverse: being too skinny. I don’t like eating. I’ve talked with doctors about this and I’m assuming it’s due to being skinny, but I get no response.
My teeth are “ok”. I’ve had one dental filling over my life. Dentists usually comment on how clean they are. None have yet to say anything negative about overall hygiene. They’re overcrowded so cosmetically they don’t look great.
Right now I’m going through 8 cans a day, or 3 liters. On days I’m not occupied, like weekends, it could be more.
I’ve also always been physically active and I continue to be.
Again, weight or excess sugar and its diseases are not relevant.
