Calorie-free beverage options

[miajag]

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.

[qdmcg]

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.

[Wolfram]

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.

[AZK]

you are forgetting the 2nd most important calorie free beverage next to water: Americanos (espresso and water).

Tons of antioxidants, great stimulants, zero calories.

[miajag]

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.

[POKEROMGLOL]

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.

[cbloom]

I wish there was a Caffeine-free Coke Zero. I would drink the hell out of that [censored]. It would seriously help me cut down on the booze.

(speaking of which, maybe I could up my protein by switching to Alcoholic Chicken...)

If you want a healthy beverage other than water, Green Tea is probably your best bet. I also enjoy sparkling water with a squirt of lime. No I am not gay.

[ktulu22]

Can not drink any kind of diet soda - id rather drink my own piss. I really like the Fit & Active brand of lemonade that is found at Aldi's grocery stores. 99% of the time I just drink water but when I am craving some flavor in my drink, that is what I choose

[Rootabager]

The splenda versions of Jones Soda is delicious. Especially Root Beer.

[GamblorZ]

Generally diet drinks are considered safe up until a point. I would not be drinking more then 1 a day (even though current research shows that having large amounts per day is safe, these studies are not done over a large period of time).

research showing artificial sweeteners unsafe basically try to compress 5 years of exposure into a few weeks by increasing the dosage of aspartame to insane levels. But it's best to be on the cautious side

Honestly though you should try clean up your over all diet and exercise routine (unless your drinking 5 cans a day [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]).