after you get past the initial withdrawal, you will feel so much better. I gave up soda 2 years ago and now when I order one, which I think I've done once or twice, I can't even stand to drink it. Water and tea make me feel tons better.

If you miss the bubbles, try sparkling mineral water and some juice. If you don't want the calories, try using a lot of lime or other citrus for a strong flavor.

I drink water almost exclusively. I don't actually like juice or soda. In fact, in the past the only way I could drink OJ was to mix it with the bubbles. Other than water I have maybe one alcoholic beverage a week.

Even before I changed my diet I have not touched diet sodas because of the artificial flavoring and chemicals, which has been proven to cause cancer in lab mice. And whenever I see anyone drinking it I want to tell them that if they want to drink soda, they should drink a tiny amount of the regular kind instead of gourging on a unhealthy drink.

Hey proteus--- You know the only thing keeping me from drinking tons of crystal light is the wicked heartburn. Heartburn is a rarity for me, but every single time I drink more than a bottle of that stuff it starts flaring.

Thinking back on when I was successfully low carbing -- I never did lose my desire for flavored beverages. When I exercise and get really really thirsty, it's only time I like plain water. I wish I felt that way all the time, but maybe I do need to go cold turkey and see if it does something.

are you banning all carbonation? if not, la croix sparkling water is refreshing and comes in a can so psychologically it feels like an alternative to soda.

I love brewing peppermint tea then icing it--also ginger tea iced but it's pretty intense so only if you love ginger.

There is something about popping a can of fizzy drink. Hmmm. Maybe that's part of the problem, for me anyway.

I'm in on the no diet sado bandwagon!
( I left that as it cannot be a coincidence that sado came out instead of soda...after reading the ingredients and what we all know about diet soda, one would have to be a sadomasochist to keep drinking it! )

Anyway, I am down to one or two bottles of the stuff a week, and shooting to lower that. The one I probably drink the most often is Diet Vernor's Ginger Ale. The Ginger Ale settles my stomach when I am having issues with my acid reflux.

I have a tea here called Bengal Spice and there is a good deal of ginger i it, but it does not do the same as Ginger Ale...

The 100% unsweetened cranberry juice and club soda sounds really good!

I love Bengal Tea, I should get some of that.

I gave up diet soda years ago when I developed a reaction to aspartame before they came out with splenda sweetened drinks.

I drink water, water with lemon, water with lime, and if I'm just dying for a fizzy drink, I have a can of Canada Dry flavored seltzer.

Its very annoying when we travel to places where the water doesn't taste very good.

The best soda substitute I've found in terms of taste and texture is the Knudsen Spritzer stuff in the glass bottles. The Black Cherry flavor tastes just like red pop would taste like if it tasted nothing like how it actually tastes.

However, it's very high in sugar. No added sugar, mind you, but still high in sugar.

The other options are fizzy water mixed with fruit juice and, well, fizzy water. That maintains the texture. Once you've been on NeanderThin for a while, your taste buds will come back and you'll have a natural apprehension of sweetness.

As a general rule, try to avoid aluminum cans. Aluminum is a bad long-term packaging material, due to the risk of aluminum deposits within the brain.

I advise tackling the addiction to the sweetness of soda first, and during that time supplementing with caffeine pills. You can remove caffeine later. Some people, however, due better all at once.

There is some practical advice for detoxing from caffeine linked to from the last URL in my signature.

I just found this thread and I'm thrilled! I decided yesterday that I need to stop drinking pop. Does anyone have any good articles about the dangers of pop? I haven't done much research yet, but I do want to do that.

Thanks!
Lenise

As someone who just did that, this comment is very true.

Im new here so forgive me if i break any rules, but club soda with a few drops of flavored stevia ( from wisdom naturals) is very nice subsitute for soda. They even have root beer flavored stevia. But my favorite is apricot mixed with vanilla in club soda!

I've been soda free for awhile now except I sometimes have it when I dine out. It wasn't nearly as tough as I thought it would be. Yay!

There were recently articles about benzene in fruit flavored sodas and heart disease all of them, even diet soda. So anyway, I figure now is the time to ditch 'em. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12174292/
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/cond...odas/index.html

I'm still drinking Crystal Light but I'll stop that as soon as I run out. I bought to large bottles of juice just so I could have the nice glass containers. Poured the juice down the drain and I use the big glass jars to make Sun tea.

I'm still working on phasing diet pop out...thought this week has been bad As I have downed one 8 pack and 3 cans of diet pop......

I am also really working towards wiping out most of the artificial sweeteners in my diet....but since that stuff is in EVERYTHING that does not have sugar it has been real tough. My diet consists of protein shakes and bars that have these as well as an energy drink....but the amounts of them in these items is relatively small. However if I wipe out the SF jelly, diet pop, Blue Bunny LC yogurt and LC ice cream that will be the lions share of what I consume....

Revisiting Induction and working up through the phases of Atkins will most assuredly kick them out of my WOE. I didn't consume any of that stuff fro a long time after starting Atkins, but it has gradually wormed it's way back in.

Interestingly enough, if I consume too much diet pop or artificial sweeteners, I get a horrid aftertaste and it seems to aggravate my kidney stone issue....though the caffeine may not help either, and my thirst is definitely not quenched, dry mouth also goes up dramatically when i consume too much diet poop or artificial sweeteners.

Diet pop is linked to all manner of bad things and one does not need to look real hard to find this info. From crackpots to credible science....the info is all over the web....

I gotta stop buying this stuff.....it will definitely not be stocked in my house anymore!