Diet Pepsi replacement....on my grocery store shelf

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Fruit juice spritzers (start out at 1:1 juice and seltzer or club soda, and gradually decrease the juice)

Something I've started recently is cold-brewing teas and herbal teas for iced tea, and turning those into spritzers with seltzer.

ETA - there's nothing wrong with diet soda from a weight loss or health perspective, so you could just continue drinking that. But spritzers you make yourself, or iced tea or coffee you brew yourself, will likely work out a good bit easier on your wallet.

mathandcats wrote: »

What about diet soda are you wanting to avoid? (I.e. please clarify "better alternative to diet soda")

Tea is 0 cals, you can sweeten it with stevia or something.

It could be to avoid carbonic or phosphoric acids that are found in sodas [if you're trying to avoid phosphoric acid, those are only in dark-colored sodas, except for root beer].

I personally use those individual flavor packs made for 16.9 oz water bottles. I'm so sensitive to sweets that I can flavor a liter of water with one of those and it's just sweet enough.

Zevia is carbonated flavored water. My local Kroger carries it in the organic section, comes in 6 different flavors. Can also be found at whole foods, fresh thyme, probably trader joes. The cream soda is the best imho.

What about sweetened diet tea that comes bottled by Lipton? They have different flavors and are, I believe, like 5 calories a bottle. I think there are some that are zero calories as well. The peach and green teas are my favorite.

Again - what is the issue with diet soda? Is it the carbonation? The artificial sweeteners? It is hard to suggest alternatives when we don't know the issue.

There are bottled, unsweetened iced teas. Pure Leaf sells a few. There's also Zevia soda, which doesn't have aspartame or sucralose.

Oh, so a quick "grab and drink" thing. Whenever I'm in that mood, I either get a Vitamin Water Zero or a Sparkling ICE, depending on my mood [VWZ is larger, but Sparkling ICE is just a bit sweeter and is sweetened by sucralose, not aspartame].

There's not really anything in diet sodas that make you gain weight. Some people can't process phosphates normally, but it's very rare and that only pertains to dark sodas. I drink diet sodas very often and I'm still losing weight.

johnarnold101 wrote: »

The issue is I'm told the chemicals in it and artificial sweetners trick your body and you can still gain weight....and you'll get diseases and die a horrible death. Anything in a 2 liter size or equivalent?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1308408/why-aspartame-isnt-scary/p1

My favorite thing about going to HEB is picking up a bottle of their store brand diet sodas at the end. Sparkling ICE is lovely.

Tea will have zero calories if unsweetened, and Pure Leaf sells multi serve bottles of unsweetened teas. I'm sure there are other brands. You could add a small amount of a non-artificial sweetener such as stevia to it. If you are willing to take a very small amount of effort, you can make a jug of a tea you like, sweetening it to your taste (again, use stevia or similar for 0 calories), and then chilling it in the fridge. This is much cheaper than buying it pre-brewed.

Drinking diet soda will not make you balloon up and then die a horrible death. However, I do believe in moderation, and if you're drinking a 2L every day (you didn't say how frequently you're buying them, so maybe this doesn't apply), it's probably not so good. For instance, it's not good for your teeth, regardless of how you feel about aspartame or other sweeteners.

If you are only against aspartame, diet Pepsi has switched to sucralose.

0 calories, sweetened, large servings, and no effort is quite a restrictive list. You might consider training yourself to enjoy milder flavours than soda, and eventually plain water.

johnarnold101 wrote: »

PaperPudding, I'm not trolling....I had a dietician tell me those things.....thanks so much for understanding....that's sarcasm in case you didn't catch it. I love my diet soda but I keep getting told it's bad for me. I was going to switch to PowerAde Zero, I'm told it's bad. The bottled teas on the store shelf (like Arizona) has aspartame and I'm told it's bad. Anything that is natural (juices/teas) on the shelf are 120 calories per serving. When you go to the store for years and you grab a 2 liter bottle of diet soda off the shelf and you want to replace that, you ask for information and help from people in a location who have more knowledge and have maybe gone through the same thing.

How can something that has no calories (energy) cause weight gain? There's nothing that can 'trick' the body into gaining weight (it's not scientifically possible), as the only way to gain weight is with a calorie surplus. I find it odd that a registered dietitian would even say that.

I don't get the 'logic', here. I drink 0 cal all the time and am losing weight just fine, and am not dead. *shrug*

Regular soda is better for you than diet soda lol

OP, you can probably drink your diet soda, so long as you don't get into the thinking that, "This is diet, so I can drink a whole 3-liter bottle in one sitting if I want to do that." or "I'll drink a diet soda, because that somehow makes the huge cheeseburger have less calories."