Fizzy drinks, whats the downside with these??

[megga]

I drink pepsi max and some other sugar free pop, we all know about the sugar in standard pop, but whats the main problem with sugar free???
Beer is a no no, water has no taste, coffee is good, but too much aint that good, fruit juice sends my bs through the roof, so i'm left with fizzy pop and cordial.

 

[Northerner]

Not a fan of fizzy drinks myself, never have been. I think the main drawback with things like Pepsi Max is the caffeine content. I tend to drink Robinson's 'No Added Sugar' fruit squash in various flavours - doesn't appear to affect my levels or cause any other problems for me 🙂

 

[KookyCat]

Diet fizzy is also just as bad for your teeth apparently especially cola type pop because it has acid in it. Also apparently can exacerbate tummy issues if you have any because of the gas in them. I drink fizzy water mostly with ice and lime, it's alkali so helps combat upset tums and it's sharp which is what I like about fizzy pop. Iced tea is also a favourite despite the fact that I hate tea hot, but I also like a cherry Pepsi max

Also I have orange juice with my breakfast, about 100mls diluted with fizzy water (about 400mls) and that has no effect on my blood sugar, I'm guessing because it is affected by food digestion and doesn't rush so quickly into the bloodstream or it could just be my peculiar reaction to it. If you are ok with sweetener a friend of mine buys fruit tea bags brews them up in a jug adds a bit of sweetener and then has iced tea. The apple and cinnamon she does is nice.

 

[Copepod]

It's all about not overdoing anything.

Water may be tasteless, but many people find tap water more palatable if placed in fridge to cool and / or add some slices of lemon or lime to jug, which adds virtually no calories nor carbohydrate, just a nice taste.

Lots of sugar free squashes are available, which generally have lower acid content than diet or regular fizzy drinks.

The odd can or small bottle or glass of fizzy pop won't do any harm, and if diet, won't affect blood glucose levels. Drinking a couple of mouthfuls of water after fizzy pop will remove most of the harmful effects of acid from teeth.

 

[Vicsetter]

No-one has mentioned don't drink too much 'diet' drinks as they contain artificial sweeteners which may cause tummy problems.
Aldi no-added sugar orange or blackcurrant squash (as good as if not better than Robinsons) and a lot cheaper.
I have a couple of cups of black coffee in the morning, Aldi diet lemonade (49p for 2ltr) at lunch and then orange squash for the rest of the day.

 

[DeusXM]

There's two things to 'watch' with diet soft drinks (aside from the acid, which is in regular ones anyway).

Firstly, if it's a caffeinated drink, it may raise your blood sugar. Everyone's different.

Secondly, there's the artificial sweeteners. I'm of the view that these are unnecessarily demonised BUT I see little point in consuming vast quantities of them. The artificial sweeteners used in soft drinks are not the same ones as those used in foods though, so they shouldn't cause the gastric distress associated with the '-ols' (maltitol, sorbitol etc). However, one of the more common sweeteners is aspartame - there is a medical condition called PKU, and people with this condition can't ingest aspartame.

Just to clear up a few things though, beer is not a 'no no' with diabetes for the most part, although it certainly isn't a good source of hydration during the working day!

And I would really look at working on getting used to water. Water is the best drink for human beings. Not every basic biological process needs to be cavalcade of entertainment and stimulation, sometimes you just need to quench your thirst. If you find water 'boring', I'd suggest you've probably drunk too many flavoured drinks than is healthy. Try it with a squeeze of lemon or lime and then work your way down.

 

[robert@fm]

I drink fizzy water mostly with ice and lime, it's alkali so helps combat upset tums and it's sharp which is what I like about fizzy pop.

Actually, pure fizzy water without any contents other than water and carbon dioxide is acidic (carbonic acid, not to be confused with carbolic); that's why one symptom of acidosis (blood pH too low) is panting, the body is trying to restore the blood pH by expelling excess CO2. (Which in turn is probably why, one of the times I was admitted to hospital earlier this year, the Resus nurses thought I might be suffering DKA despite being type 2; I was actually panting because I was lying too flat without a ventilator, not because I was acidotic.) Of course, sparkling mineral water may be alkaline because of the mineral content; I think that (or something like it) is why San Pellegrino seems to me to have a "softer" taste than plain fizzy water.

 

[robert@fm]

Water may be tasteless, but many people find tap water more palatable if placed in fridge to cool and / or add some slices of lemon or lime to jug, which adds virtually no calories nor carbohydrate, just a nice taste.

I think it depends where you live. London tap water is far from tasteless; it tastes like drinking from a swimming pool, and I for one can't stand the stuff even if thoroughly chilled. 😱 Fortunately, a simple charcoal filter will remove nearly all the chlorine, and one can buy a 1 litre water bottle with such a filter built-in (£10 for the bottle and the first filter, £6 each for replacement filters, the last time I looked). For household use (such as to improve the taste of hot drinks whilst slowing-down the furring-up of your appliances) I use a Brita Maxtra filter.

No-one has mentioned don't drink too much 'diet' drinks as they contain artificial sweeteners which may cause tummy problems.

Actually, as DeusXM said, drinks tend not to be sweetened with polyols (which are used mainly where a bulking agent as well as a sweetener is needed, such as in sugar-free pastilles) but with sweeteners such as saccharin or aspartame, which don't cause problems (ignore the nutcases who claim that they cause everything from cancer to nuclear war; if there were any truth in that, I would have dropped dead about 10 years ago).

However, one of the more common sweeteners is aspartame - there is a medical condition called PKU, and people with this condition can't ingest aspartame.

This is one of the nutcases' arguments; they scream that "aspartame contains phenylalanine! Phenylalanine is a neurotoxin!!!" — whilst carefully omitting to mention that phenylalanine is a neurotoxin only to those unfortunate few who suffer PKU (to the rest of us, it's an essential nutrient); or that PKU is extremely rare (with an estimated only 1 in 100,000 sufferers).

 

[AlisonM]

I have no trouble with fizzy drinks at all, I'm sitting here with a fizzy water now, fresh slice of lime included. I do drink occasional diet fizzies, preferring the 'zeroes' to the plain diet versions as they seem less cloying with the exception of diet IrnBru which I love. I tend to stick to tea though, and have recently begun drinking it decaff and having more green tea.

If you're trying to rehydrate then a glass of un-chilled water or a cup of tea is far better at the job than an ice cold fizzy would be. Cold fluid just goes straight through while un-chilled is absorbed more easily.

 

[trophywench]

We were recommended to 'Yorkshire' brand decaff tea = and we can't tell the difference from normal Tetley.

And the chaps who came to do our windows yesterday were drinking it ALL day and kept saying, you make a good cuppa - can't stand it weak etc.

I did eventually tell them !

My mate (from Hull) used to say about the brand - OOh yes, if you ever go to Ilkley, you'll see the women in their saris and clogs, picking the tea on the slopes of the moor .....

 

[megga]

Thanks for the replays, a little education goes a long way. Cant drink tea, don't know why but its like bananas for me, i like the taste but with in seconds i feel very sick, so its black coffee for me (and i like it strong).
With the fizzy drinks its mainly when i'm at work, as i drink allot (i used to be the 15-18 pint man) and some exchanges where i work, there's no where to make a cuppa, and others the taps are so old, limescale and rust, i would not even think about drinking anything out of them.

 

[Copepod]

How about carrying a vaccuum flask of black coffee when you work in exchanges with nowhere to make a cuppa or unappealing taps?

 

[DeusXM]

15-18 pints of fizzy drink a day? That is NOT a good idea at all.

15-18 pints of ANY liquid a day isn't a good idea.

As Copepod says, why not either carry a thermos with coffee in it...or better yet, just fill up a big bottle of water from your tap at home?