Is diet soda costing you more than you bargained for?

[QuarterMillionMan]

All that water has to go somewhere. On average 10x a day. I dread long plane rides. A short 1 hour trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is okay but upon landing I'll have to visit the men's room. Long trips let's say to Hawaii for a 6 hour plane ride I have to get an aisle seat so as not to disturb other passengers.

[scfr]

I'm another one who used to drink diet soda sometimes when I was working in an office, but I kicked that at least 15 years ago. Now it's water or coffee or tea. Lately I'm on an infused water kick. I keep a pitcher in the fridge that has some frozen blackberries & crused sage leaves in it. I wish I would have adopted that habit decades ago.

[Fishindude77]

Here's the problem with soda, diet or regular, and it's the same problem in the US with food in general. PORTION SIZES.

Yea, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine also.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a fountain coke / soda, just seems like they taste better on ice than out of a can or bottle.
So you go into the C-Store and the smallest cup is 32oz styrofoam which is not just way more soda than I want, plus those fat flimsy cups barely fit in your auto cup holders either.

And who the h#ll drinks those 64oz big gulps they sell at all the C-stores? I've never really been in the mood to drink 5-1/3 cokes in one sitting.


I purchased one of those 1gal Yet jugs and the mounting bracket for on my tractor and fill it up with ice water on days I'll be spending on the tractor.
It's been a real nice accessory and stays good and cold.

[disneysteve]

Yea, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine also.
Sometimes I'm in the mood for a fountain coke / soda, just seems like they taste better on ice than out of a can or bottle.
So you go into the C-Store and the smallest cup is 32oz styrofoam which is not just way more soda than I want, plus those fat flimsy cups barely fit in your auto cup holders either.

And who the h#ll drinks those 64oz big gulps they sell at all the C-stores? I've never really been in the mood to drink 5-1/3 cokes in one sitting.

The same is true for food too. I know that’s not the topic of the thread but there are restaurants I love but won’t go to unless I know that I’ll be able to use the leftovers over the subsequent 3-4 days because the portions are insanely large. There’s one place that has the absolute best chicken cheesesteak but I easily get 3 meals out of one sandwich. So I won’t go there unless I know my schedule will allow for me to have the other 2 meals and not waste it all.

[kork13]

I mostly just drink water. I have a 40oz Hydroflask that is almost comically always at my side -- I often call it my security blanket. I generally fill & finish that bottle 2-3 times a day. I've gratefully never been big on sodas ... I'll have 1-2 cans (or a fountain drink) maybe once a month, if that, mostly when I'm out with friends. I don't drink alcohol, so having a soda in hand is often my substitute (though just as often it's my water bottle).

However, I absolutely HATE diet sodas, because the artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, and most others) make me feel physically/painfully sick ... not pretty. Another reason I don't like diet soda is what I saw it do to my father. He drank multiple diet sodas daily for decades... I remember it growing up as a kid, and the soda was definitely a deeply ingrained habit for him. A handful of years after my mother died, he got remarried to a woman who frankly was quite overweight. They both started working toward more healthy habits to help her lose some of her weight, and one of the first things he did before any sort of significant diet changes was that he stopped drinking the diet sodas. He immediately started shedding some of his own excess weight, and within a couple months, he'd already lost nearly 20lbs. Yes, he was also walking daily & reduced the frequency of his meals from fast food joints .... But he readily tells us that cutting out the diet soda was the biggest thing that really made him feel different/more healthy & helped him to start losing weight. I've read many times that artificial sweeteners trigger hunger hormones, leading you to eat more. So even though the soda itself doesn't have many calories, it drives you to eat more than you otherwise would.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I love soda with pizza and burgers. Can't help myself with those two specific meals. Something about fries and soda and pizza. But otherwise I prefer water with meals. But i also drink a coke zero. I go 1-2x a week a can maybe. But portion sizes are the too much. When we also go to places that has refills we'll get one and share. I don't need more than a bit.

Oh and soda with popcorn. Like tonight we're doing a movie night and I saved my soda for the week