Entry tags:
Glug, glug
Nearly everyone who knows me also knows that I drink, almost exclusively, Diet Pepsi. It is in my case much like the coffee addiction of other adults. When I am not drinking it I usually imbibe some other artificially-sweetened beverage (I even use artificial sweeteners in my tea) although at restaurants I will drink water with lemon... only when dining out or at Pennsic do I drink water. Usually because most municipal waters taste nasty to me - even with our Brita filter I can taste the chemicals added to the water, which disturb me more than those in my diet beverages since I expect a chemical flavor there.
Nonetheless, after probably twenty years of drinking that one particular soda, I am going to be quitting it. Because of this: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature13793.html . Now before you start with the "that is only one study and could be just the same as many other 'scare studies'" - I know that. I also know that I am addicted to a particular beverage which is almost completely unnatural and it would benefit me to remove it from my life. Not to mention that it would be, if the study is correct, a smart thing for a new diabetic to stop ingesting. So that is what I'm going to be working on over the next few months. I won't be going 'cold turkey'; I have done that before and yet here I am again, drinking Diet Pepsi. Instead I'll be experimenting with other beverages and working to find a few natural ones I would enjoy drinking because I like them, not because I'm "denying myself" (a dieter's downfall). Over time this should phase out the soda. As far as I can see, "stevia" and "monk fruit" are not considered to be dangerous or contribute to diabetes. I'd been using both of those sweeteners with my teas in the last year or so anyway. But Splenda, NutraSweet, Saccharine - those are going away. I just learned, because I was googling stevia and monk fruit, that stevia's "lingering aftertaste that is so horrible" is a licorice flavor, which explains why I've had no problem with it at all. I love licorice and even have licorice teas.
(I should add somewhere in here a curious thing that I noticed and after just now talking with my eldest, he has experienced too. Plain water makes my mouth feel like it is coated with dust after I've drank it. I lean towards sodas because the carbonation seems to eliminate that. I've no idea, though, why it should be that plain water induces a strong desire to drink - something else, anything else to get that feeling out of my mouth - just after I finish it.)
Nonetheless, after probably twenty years of drinking that one particular soda, I am going to be quitting it. Because of this: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature13793.html . Now before you start with the "that is only one study and could be just the same as many other 'scare studies'" - I know that. I also know that I am addicted to a particular beverage which is almost completely unnatural and it would benefit me to remove it from my life. Not to mention that it would be, if the study is correct, a smart thing for a new diabetic to stop ingesting. So that is what I'm going to be working on over the next few months. I won't be going 'cold turkey'; I have done that before and yet here I am again, drinking Diet Pepsi. Instead I'll be experimenting with other beverages and working to find a few natural ones I would enjoy drinking because I like them, not because I'm "denying myself" (a dieter's downfall). Over time this should phase out the soda. As far as I can see, "stevia" and "monk fruit" are not considered to be dangerous or contribute to diabetes. I'd been using both of those sweeteners with my teas in the last year or so anyway. But Splenda, NutraSweet, Saccharine - those are going away. I just learned, because I was googling stevia and monk fruit, that stevia's "lingering aftertaste that is so horrible" is a licorice flavor, which explains why I've had no problem with it at all. I love licorice and even have licorice teas.
(I should add somewhere in here a curious thing that I noticed and after just now talking with my eldest, he has experienced too. Plain water makes my mouth feel like it is coated with dust after I've drank it. I lean towards sodas because the carbonation seems to eliminate that. I've no idea, though, why it should be that plain water induces a strong desire to drink - something else, anything else to get that feeling out of my mouth - just after I finish it.)