Thursday, May 21, 2009

Aspartame to Green Tea switcharoo

(photo note) I shall continue my tradition of blurry light night photos with the above photo, free courtesy of pixmac.com, they just get to put their huge logo on the picture, not a bad trade since I did not take the picture!

I gave up diet soda 6 days ago. Tomorrow will be 1 week, day 7 wahooo. Whether it be diet-coke, diet-pepsi, diet dr. pepper, diet 7 up, I was drinking it. Lots of it. Diet soda had become a close friend of mine. Not a healthy friend. Especially when your friend wants you to drive to 7-11 at 11pm to buy 44 ounces of chemical sparkly liquid to quench an addiction. Sure, addiction to soda is not listed in the DSM IV as an "official" addiction but I believe it is an addiction like any other. Withdrawl symptoms when discontinuing use, cravings, excessive consumption etc. I am mostly doing this for my health and to save money.

I won't pretend to be a scientist but I became concerned about all of the not so natural sweeteners in diet sodas. Mainly aspertame in my drinks of choice. Just google aspartame and health and you will find thousands of articles alleging damaging health effects from its consumption. I am not here to defame the chemical, I just want to get off of it for good and feel healthier. You can be a guinea pig and keep drinking the stuff and let me know if you develop health problems later. I will be busy drinking water, coffee and iced tea. I've been chain drinking diet sodas for about 10 years and my bodily organs can not take the abuse any longer. I am on a detox from diet soda.

I have taken up a relationship with a new, healthier friend. Specifically, green tea. It's been consumed for thousands of years, has many health benefits and gives the body good things like antioxidants. I am flavoring it with the natural sweetener Stevia. I prefer iced tea but also drink some hot tea. You may know about Stevia already or not. It is a natural leaf grown mostly in South America. It is calorie free, completely natural and non-addictive. If they come out with a healthy soda flavored with Stevia I just might have to try it. Minus the phosporic acid that is. I'm getting picky! Next thing you know I'm going to be buying the hormone free meats at whole foods. Not too quick, just one change at a time, I'll tackle the other habitary monsters later...I can handle getting off diet soda and switching to tea. Not sure when I can be released from the nicotine prison.

I am having fun brewing my own tea at home. I've made some cool mixes with green tea with lemon mixed with earl grey and a green tea that has other natural herbs. It's fun to mix and match, experiment and try different flavors. I love juice mixed with tea. There is a wide variety of sweetened tea products for sale in any convenience store...however...most of these are 1. if they are diet they have the artificial sweetenters 2. if they are not diet, they tend to be loaded with high fructose corn syrup. I don't have time to go into that one...just google it to find out potential health hazards. It's hard to find a juice or sweet tea made with only natural or cane sugar. There are a few on the market but you really have to look around to find them.

And yes, I am beginning to appreciate the simplicity of a glass of cold water. So simple, so refreshing and pure. Water is the ultimate health beverage...that is if it's not full of harsh trace chemicals and tons of chlorine used to sterilize it! It's hard to be healthy isn't it.

Have you ever quit soda? How long did the withdrawls last? Are you a fan of tea? Do you believe it has many health benefits? Post my blog or call our customer care green tea hotline at 1-800-Drinkgreen to post your thoughts. I'm about to enjoy a warm cup of tea now. Nothing obscure, just Lipton Green tea flavored with natural lemon. It is relaxing to drink tea. Tea is comforting and soothing. I am teavolving away from the soda habit....I'll update you on my progress and withdrawl symptoms. Git R' Done, Git Some Tea!

4 comments:

  1. I gave up soda in favor of seltzer. Of course, now I must live without all carbonation, so I drink a lot of water and tea, esp. the various Tazo teas! I didn't go through withdrawal per se, but there are times now, over a year later, when I miss the fizzy sweetness of a diet coke. But good health is more important to me.

    So you gave up aspartame and HFCS, what's next? Nicotine? I'm just asking...

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  2. I really like seltzer too but haven't had any in a while, when I get the craving for some bubbles and fizz I will have to get some. I like Tazo teas, they are great quality. Nicotine is next on my last, it's going to be the hardest because I've tried several times before and made it about 3 months at a stretch then go back. That is one hell of an addiction. Nicotine and cigarettes are insidious things. That is my next project, I'm just putting it off because I really know just how hard it is to do. When I do, I'll sure be blogging about it. There are some great blogs I've read that are from people who have successfully quit smoking that I look to for inspiration. For now, I hope the green tea antioxidants give me at least some protection...in Japan they drink tons of green tea and smoke a lot..yet they have dramatically lower lung cancer rates that our country..who knows. I think the answer is quitting not damage control..

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  3. Did you know that there are some stevia-sweetened spritzer things readily available? I've seen them at Whole Foods, and now also at my local Acme. I am finding that I just can't get into stevia, something about the taste bothers me. I've also found some unsweetened bottled iced teas recently, which made me happy because that's what I really want -- no sugar, nothing artificial, just the tea, the whole tea, nothing but the tea.

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  4. Thanks for letting me know about the stevia sweetened beverages, I will look out for and try some. I have never seen any for sale yet. As for hothing but the whole tea..that is sure hard to find. When I look in the convenience stores all I seem to find is a large variety of super sugared or diet teas. I'll have to try the unsweetened kind, sounds good. I guess the taste of stevia is not for everyone..but I kinda like it. It does dissolve better in hot water than in cold water, that's about the only downside I can see so far. Have a great day!

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