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#1
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Calorie-free beverage options
So lately I've been trying pretty hard to eliminate drinking stuff that contains calories (other than milk/oj with breakfast and the occasional scotch/bourbon bender). I'm wondering what the relative advantages/disadvantages to the various zero-calorie (or negligible-calorie) beverage options are. Unless I'm missing something big, there are four major ones:
- Water - Diet soda - Unsweetened tea (or sweetened with Equal or Splenda or something) - Diet drink mixes like Crystal Light, etc. Now, I'm aware water is almost certainly the "best" of these, but exactly how much better is a glass of water than a Coke Zero or whatever? Also, I'm at least somewhat aware of the issues with caffeine/lack thereof with regard to hydration. Mostly I'm just wondering if there are any of these I should particularly avoid because they're bad for whatever reason. |
#2
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
there is a lot of disagreement with respect to what diet sodas do to you. a lot of stuff in soda clearly isn't good for your body (or your teeth), but IMO the research isn't really clear on how bad it is for you. I couldn't imagine that 1-2 sodas per day should really have much of an effect. certain studies show aspartame possibly being carcinogenic (?) not really sure.
I say this because the next 5 posts are going to mention how bad diet soda is. |
#3
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] diet-soda and drink way to much of it.
It's definitely bad for your teeth. Make sure you brush and floss. And if you have weak enamel you should probably stay away, but that goes for any highly acidic drinks (carbonated water, orange juice etc). The cancer-issue has been largely refuted. As long as you drink it in human quantities you should be fine. Remember that aspartame is 1000 times sweeter than sugar. That's why there's so few calories in diet-soda. It's not because aspartame doesn't contain calories, it's just because each bottle contains so little of it. However, aspartame has been shown to stimulate some neurons in your brain in some way (I don't know the specifics). I think they still haven't decided if the effect is bad or not for you though. There's a ton of really bad pseudoscience concerning the "diet" effect of diet-soda. Most of them focus on how diet-soda doesn't cause weight loss which is obviously silly. Drinking water doesn't cause weight loss, but switching out 500-1000 empty calories a day by substituting sugared soda with diet-soda or water will help you lose weight. Alot of them are also 'cause-and-effect, like how they like to show that people that drink diet-soda are fatter than those that drink only water/juice. They always forget to adjust for the rest of the diet, i.e. diet-soda drinkers being likelier to eat fast-food, candy etc. All I know for a fact is this: When I was losing weight for the first time, I cut out most of the junk in my diet but I decided that diet-soda would be my vice. I probably drank 2L a day on average. And I lost around 85lbs in a year. |
#4
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
you are forgetting the 2nd most important calorie free beverage next to water: Americanos (espresso and water).
Tons of antioxidants, great stimulants, zero calories. |
#5
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
Yeah, I considered mentioning coffee-type drinks, but A) I don't like them and rarely drink them; and B) I'm mainly talking about beverages I'd be drinking throughout the day to quench thirst, and with lunch and dinner. I don't think coffee fits those criteria for most people.
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#6
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
i have gotten to the point where coke 0 is almost better than regular coke and fat free starbucks (not calorie free) is better than regular starbucks.
i have come a long way in 6 months. |
#7
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Re: Calorie-free beverage options
I used to make my own zero cal Italian sodas... Ice, 8 oz Club Soda (make sure it's 0 calories, some have sugar) and Sugar Free Syrups (DaVinci is good, Torani is passable). Cremosas are even better, but have cals(same recipe+couple Tbsp Half and Half).
Now I just drink Water and (home-made) Americanos. |
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