Diet Soda vs Sparkling Water

check this out. Water is free and it is better than sparkling anything.

Well, a lot of the sparkling flavored waters have a lot of the same chemicals (especially aspartame) in it that a lot of the sodaphobes don't want to ingest so I am not sure on that front.

I drink tons of sparking water. Like Hornsby said, you have to watch for what else is added. You can find ones that the label only shows water and carbonation. Ice Mountain makes several good flavors, but without the aspartame. I do use the soda stream, and add slices of lemons or limes. You can find plain sparking waters, with nothing added and add your own fruits or mint. Some of the sparkling water really is no better than a diet soda.

I had a horrid diet coke issue 5 to 6 a day some days.... the last 57 days on here, I have cut way back on diet and now enjoy Lemon or lime Klarbrunn sparkling water. The only ingredients are carbonated water and natural lemon or lime flavor. Is a no brainer to me if you can't stand plain water or even flavored plain water....the carbonation adds a special touch....

This is the ingredients:

Filtered Carbonated Water, Citric Acid, Natural Flavor, Potassium Citrate, Aspartame, Potassium Benzoate (A Preservative), Acesulfame Potassium. Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine.

So...basically this is the same as drinking diet soda?

Beat me to it.

So....this particular brand is no different than drinking a diet soda, right? There are waters out there that aren't like this though. I love carbonation. So, guess I just need to find the water that doesn't have all the chemicals added. (I knew it was too good to be true).

I drink diet soda every day. Hasn't hindered anything on my end. If you like diet soda, drink diet soda. Everything in moderation.

If you're just looking for weight loss, diet soda or flavored/sweetened sparkling water are going to be about equivalent (you can always compare nutrition info to see if there's any difference on sodium, etc.). That being said, aspartame has a lot of well-scientifically-demonstrated nasty health implications. I would stick to water or another flavored beverage that isn't artificially sweetened.

Try flavored seltzer. It's bubbly and has no artificial sweeteners.

Some brands of sparking water are flavored and have aspartame. They come in the same 1 liter bottles as the seltzer water which is carbonated water with possibly flavoring but no sweetener. I have to look twice sometimes to distinguish between the two because they look the same, just like clear bottled water. I prefer the seltzer water to the sweetened version. (When I want to drink diet soda, I drink diet soda.)

At home, we drink plain Setzer Water and add fruit. Most recently, we drink Setzer Water with Grapefruit. Gives you great taste thats fresh without all the chemicals. We get the big Setzer Waters from the grocery store and in SoCal Grapefruit are currently 2/$1.00 with each grapefruit lasting about a week and a half!

I started using Seltzer Water. On hand I have Vintage Seltzer and Food Lion's Seltzer Water. Both list their ingredients as:
Ingredients: Carbonated water. That's all! I have really enjoyed these seltzer waters with just a splash or two of juices. One day I was out of my typical Cranberry juice and even used orange juice. It still tasted great!

0 calories! (Well, except for the juice.)

So drink what you love :drinker:

It sounds like you'd probably love a sodastream. It turns plain water into sparkling/carbonated water, then it's up to you what to add, if anything.

Personally I like it's versatility and use it in a variety of ways. Most often I drink it straight, no additives, but sometimes I'll add something natural like mint leaves, a squeeze of lemon, even a vanilla bean. There are a plethora of sodastream syrups that you can buy, and using those IS the same as having soda, if that is a concern for you. However, you can control the amount you use. The only one I use on occasion is the cream soda syrup, but I only add enough to suit my taste, which is about 1/3 as strong as what you'd find in a can at the store.