World Musings

Beating caffeine addiction can be as bad as trying to beat sugar addiction or whatever else you might be addicted to. My caffeine addiction comes in the form of Diet Coke. Unlike a lot of people, I actually like the taste of Diet Coke better than regular Coke. I guess it’s because regular Coke tastes sugary to me. But knowing it has high fructose corn syrup in it anyhow is enough to keep me from regular soft drinks. So if you are like me, as a result from working a corporate office job over the years, Diet Coke has replaced water for me. At times, it had gotten to the point where I hadn’t had a glass of water in several weeks. All I was drinking was Diet Coke.

Luckily, it hasn’t seemed to of affected my health, but it very well could one day. There is no telling the health risks involved in drinking beverages with aspartame or acesulfame potassium. I’m lucky I haven’t developed kidney stones as a result of all the Diet Coke I’ve drank in my lifetime. But recently, once and for all, I’ve definitely decided to put forth the effort in eliminating or at least dramatically reducing my Diet Coke consumption. So are you a Diet beverage junkie? Are you addicted to Diet Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Mountain Dew, Sprite Zero, etc.? Well, if you are serious about beating the Diet beverage addiction, then I’ll tell you what has been working for me.

My secret weapon in beating my Diet Coke addiction has simply been Seltzer water. Seltzer water is simply pure carbonated water. It’s not club soda or tonic water. I won’t drink either of those two. I buy my seltzer water at a local grocery store for 77 cents per 2-liter. That is half the cost of what I would pay for a full 2-liter of Diet Coke where I live. I simply stumbled across this simple thing by accident. I use to drink Seltzer water years ago, but had completely forgotten all about it. I picked some up last week and drank a cold glass of it with my dinner one night instead of having a Diet Coke. I found that the carbonated taste, or carbonated effect in my mouth kind of gave the same thirst quenching satisfaction as Diet Coke does. After I was finished drinking the pure unflavored Seltzer water, I wasn’t craving my Diet Coke at all.

As a result, I was of course getting some slight headaches every now and then as a result of my dramatically reduced caffeine consumption. I still don’t know if I liked Diet Coke because I am addicted to caffeine or just because of the thirst quenching carbonated taste it has. I’m sure it’s probably a little of both. I think sometimes too, when we are actually thirsty, that is all our body’s are asking for is some water. Once you actually just drink some water, your craving for that Diet drink will pretty much be gone for that moment.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with having a Diet drink maybe a few times a week or on the weekend if you go out to dinner or lunch. But it can have unhealthy side effects if you are drinking a 2-liter per day like I was. So if you are addicted to Diet Soft drinks, or even the Regular Soft drinks, go pick yourself up some pure Seltzer water at the grocery store. Look for the 2-liters. Don’t get the small little bottles of it. Those are overpriced. Get the 2-liter grocery store brand for 77 cents or 89 cents. Drink that on the way to work in the morning. Right then and there, you’ll find that you’ve already eliminated having to drink a Diet beverage during the morning. The stingy carbonated taste in your mouth will make you feel like you are drinking a Diet beverage. And on a side note, I’m talking about pure Seltzer water. Not flavored. Flavored Seltzer water has aspartame or acesulfame potassium in it anyhow, so that pretty much eliminates the point of eliminating of Diet drinks out of your life anyhow. So give it a try. Get an ice cold 2-liter and guzzle it on the way to work, or after lunch. You’ll forget all about that Diet Coke. The caffeine headaches will remind you of it, but those will eventually go away anyhow. And also, you’ll save a few extra bucks as well since you won’t be wasting so much money on Diet drinks. That can equate into a few extra gallons of gas.