Been drinking exclusively (give or take) no-sugar caffeinated sodas since a child. Not obese or diabetic. Mid-thirties now. How bad is this?
Ummmm really bad? Also soft drink production wastes insane amounts of water. I might drink one sometimes as a treat, but when I’m home I usually drink tea or water.
I was raised drinking soda as the default… water was never something we’d willingly drink. In middle school I noticed that every day I’d get home from school with a splitting headache and I’d take a couple of aspirin and wash it down with a Coke and the headache would go away. My parents realized that it was likely caffeine withdrawal… so instead of cutting out soda, they started getting me caffeine free soda.
It wasn’t until my older brother was in his late 30s and experienced kidney failure and required a transplant that I realized I needed to make a change. I switched over to water and unsweet tea as my defaults. Even after his transplant my brother still would only drink soda… he didn’t survive Covid. And today my mom routinely has kidney issues but still refuses to drink water.
Everyone in my family, except for me, has diabetes and kidney issues. I’m sure my 30+ years of daily soda drinking will catch up to me, but I do credit cutting soda out of my diet as having a major positive impact on my overall health.
Which ingredient do you attribute the kidney issues to?
Not a doctor, but off the top of my head it would be more about lack of water. Water filters out lots of stuff - it’s a solvent. If you only drink coke, whether if caffeinated or not, it’s still saturated with various things. Your body can’t use that to remove all the crap that it needs to, which water usually does.
We’ve evolved to drink water.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its bad. Your body still has to process everything in that thats not water and none of it is a positive for the body. Drink water by default and make soda a treat
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.
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”.
It was more about it having a flavour, to help you move away from sofa.
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.
I’m using this strategy too. I have bladders of water around and my water consumption has increased, but that’s more an addition to the soda consumption.
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.
The salt content of fizzy waters makes me gag. You might as well drink sea water. I perhaps should have specified it’s coke, but when money’s an issue it’s whatever’s cheapest: pepsi or whatever clones can be found. All sugar free though. I don’t like sweet drinks and that includes flavoured water. I either drink water or a no-sugar cola. Anything else is in the ‘omg this tastes absolutely aweful why do people drink this’ territory, but that includes water and colas.
There’s been points in my life where I’d drink in excess and the ‘normal’ flavour of the cola is gone, replaced with a heavy grass taste. It’s actively unpleasant.
Pepsi’s caffeine content must be higher than coke’s, because I absolutely feel dehydrated consuming that. It’s too sweet too. It’s my least favorite cola to consume. Coke would be my favourite.
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.
Bad. Best regards from your older age.
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.
I have this issue as well, I drank a lot of soda since I was a kid and when I’m not drinking soda, I drink carbonated water… Managed to take a little break recently but I feel it’s coming back.
My teeth are ok, nothing major. I’m slightly overweight, but that’s more due to the anti-depressant I’m taking.
Yea. After being prescribed lisdexamfetamine I’ve begun to gain weight and I need to reassess what I’m consuming. I feel I need to provide context for people who aren’t reading the entire post: gain-weight doesn’t mean obesity. In this context it means not being skin and bones.
I’ve likewise taken breaks, but always relapse. Even after that period of caffeine withdrawal ends you don’t feel any ‘healthier’. During that period I will vomit. Once that’s all settled you’re annoyed, because you feel the same, only know you have a nagging thought that doesn’t go away: I want caffeine.
I reckon 3.5/10 bad.
The carbonated water isn’t great. It can lead to stomach and teeth issues.
Also, your mind has likely broken the link between eating sweet foods and feeling full, so expect losing weight to be a possible problem in the future.
There is no link between sweet foods and being sated? Sugar makes me feel ill. I dislike confectionery. I’ve tried some imported American products and the Americans are just a different breed. If I were in America I think I’d die. Their food is inedible.
Any more info on the carbonated water thing?
It isn’t the worst thing for you, but it can be a problem for some people.
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.
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.
