Carbonated Healthy Drink Alternatives

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mfswatman
mfswatman Posts: 1
in Recipes
I recently bought a carbonated drink maker, as I love the tingle of carbonated water. The issue is that all of the drink mixes seem high in sugars or sugar alcohols and many have significant calories. Has anyone come across natural, healthy, and diet conscience ways to use these drink machines? Seems like a great alternative to soda, just need to find a better way to add flavor without blowing my calories out of the water :).

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  • love8383
    love8383 Posts: 169
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    i personally just drink perrier, its kind of expensive when you drink as much as i do, i need to get one of those machines just for the water, they have those 0 calorie flavor packets too you could add.
  • posixstan
    posixstan Posts: 1
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    Sweetleaf brand stevia drops are the bomb for this. It comes in a variety of flavors. I just got the vanilla creme flavor and it makes an absolutely fantastic creme soda. Can also recommend the coconut. The chocolate flavor is weird, IMO, but not bad.
    It's not cheap, but a bottle lasts ages since you only need a few drops, and it can be used to sweeten/flavor lots of things besides water.

    ETA: lime juice and muddled fresh mint is another go to for me
  • jenny93
    jenny93 Posts: 8
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    When I'm craving a soda I usually buy Clear American. Its a clear carbonated fruit flavored beverage that is sold at wal mart. IT's les than a dollar per bottle and comes in a variety of flavors.
  • fragileelegance
    fragileelegance Posts: 102 Member
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    La croix!
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    jenny93 wrote: »
    When I'm craving a soda I usually buy Clear American. Its a clear carbonated fruit flavored beverage that is sold at wal mart. IT's les than a dollar per bottle and comes in a variety of flavors.

    I wonder if that's like the old Clearly Canadians that they used to sell.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
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    fragileelegance wrote: »
    La croix!

    This. I quite like the La Croix drinks. They take a little getting used to because they aren't sweetened at all, but the flavors are quite nice, if subtle.
  • keithlommel
    keithlommel Posts: 1
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    Mix plain carbonated water with fruit juice (I find apple juice works great). You can start off with a 1:1 ratio of seltzer and fruit juice (which will give you something that has about half the calories per volume of a regular soft drink), then slowly decrease the amount of fruit juice in the mix until you get to a 3:1 or even 4:1 ratio, which will give you a refreshing, flavorful beverage with only 25% or 20% of the calories of regular juice or soft drinks. I've gotten to the point where I don't enjoy straight fruit juice any more because it is too sweet and concentrated.
  • consideritdonemi
    consideritdonemi Posts: 88 Member
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    I'm with Keith and Co. I buy Ice Mountain brand naturally flavored carbonated water and mix it with 1/2 fruit juice, if that, usually apple. A 6 pk of 16 oz bottles run me $3 a pop. It's refreshing on it's own, too. Cheaper and more liquid than some of the name brand club soda and fancy waters. My favorite is raspeberry lime and the actual flavor is very, very light. Those carbonated machines just seem like extra steps I don't need in my day.

    Or I will just do 80% diet Coke at the self serve machine and top it with regular Coke or same deal with sweetened/unsweetened iced tea. Coke Zero was actually not too bad out of a can.
  • 1reneeski
    1reneeski Posts: 32 Member
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    I don't know if you can make club soda, but we like club soda with lemon or lime. Still has the bubbles of soda but no calories or chemicals.
  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
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    mfswatman wrote: »
    I recently bought a carbonated drink maker, as I love the tingle of carbonated water. The issue is that all of the drink mixes seem high in sugars or sugar alcohols and many have significant calories. Has anyone come across natural, healthy, and diet conscience ways to use these drink machines? Seems like a great alternative to soda, just need to find a better way to add flavor without blowing my calories out of the water :).

    I have a soda stream and I use it to carbonate water. And then I do whatever I want to it. Sometimes I add fresh fruit slices, sometimes drops, whatever I'm in the mood for. I'm with you, I dig the carbonation, hate the calories.
  • lmr0528
    lmr0528 Posts: 427 Member
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    jenny93 wrote: »
    When I'm craving a soda I usually buy Clear American. Its a clear carbonated fruit flavored beverage that is sold at wal mart. IT's les than a dollar per bottle and comes in a variety of flavors.

    This is what I buy to drink at work. I love all the different flavors that they carry... I usually buy 1 of each kind! I have enough to last weeks.

  • jamezln
    jamezln Posts: 182 Member
    edited December 2014
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    We have a soda stream and I mix Mio or some other type of water flavoring with it. It does the trick.

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