How To Beat The Soda Pop Addiction
I used to be a heavy cola drinker (somewhere between 2 to 4 cans a day) and I decided that for me, cola was ok in moderation but drinking it daily in the amounts that I was just wasn’t a healthy habit.
I found the trick to kicking the soda pop addiction was finding a replacement beverage that satisfied both the convenience and taste factor.
What I most liked about drinking soda was that it was nice and cold, easy to grab and go and had some “texture” to it (the carbonated beverage). Although I like a bit of fruit juice, it was too “syrupy” for me to find it satisfying as a main beverage and plain water wasn’t doing it either. Here’s a replacement beverage that worked for me:
Healthy Soda Pop Replacement
- Keep a jug of water refrigerated at all times. It has to be prepared fresh daily or sealed well because once it tastes a bit stale, you’re turned off of it for awhile.
- Squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice in the water, as much as you like, tossing in the just squeezed fruit wedges too.
- When serving, pour over a full glass of crushed ice. The crushed ice added a bit of “texture” to the beverage that I felt was an acceptable replacement to the carbonated soda. It wasn’t carbonated, but the sensation was satisfying enough.
- I found keeping the water cold, always at the ready and lots of crushed ice on hand was key.
More Tips:
- Don’t keep soda in the house, especially canned pop. When you open a can of pop, it’s too easy to feel obligated to drink the whole thing (otherwise it’s wasteful).
- If you find in the beginning that you just have to have some pop, keep a small bottle refrigerated. I found that giving myself a sip or two was enough to satisfy my craving. Just be careful to only take sips when you’re on the verge of guzzling a 2 Litre bottle of cola.
- Keep water bottles at the ready so you can just fill them up when you’re running out the door. You may have to pound the crushed ice a bit finer for it to scoop up nicely into the empty bottle.
If you give yourself a few days, you’ll find the craving won’t be that strong and that you’re satisfied with the citrus flavored water. For me, the crushed ice was a must have.
This is a great healthy alternative to drinking soda pop daily and it’s easy (and cheap) to maintain.
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Posted in Beauty & Health, Popular Tips | 
( 31 )
07 Jan 2008 at 7:14 am
We replaced bad pop with good pop - Seltzer water or club soda. It’s a bit of a financial savings (.50 per 2 liter bottle at our local Publix on sale or .79 regular price) and you can even get the lime or lemon thrown in for that price.
Same fizzyness, no sugar, caffeine or bad stuff. It’s also easy to make juice more interesting and less caloric.
Thanks for the tip!
07 Jan 2008 at 8:18 am
There are narrow ice cube (tube) trays available to make ice that will fit through the narrow top of a water bottle. Not quite the texture of crushed ice but so convenient! Like Chris, I ALSO like to drink seltzer water as a soda pop substitute.
07 Jan 2008 at 11:21 am
I’ve found that a little zest of lemon and/or lime spices up a plain bottle of water quite nicely.
07 Jan 2008 at 12:47 pm
Like Chris - seltzer or club soda is a good substitute especially with lemon or lime added.
If I want a sweet soda, I make my own italian sodas or ginger ale. They are very easy to make. For ginger ale, mix 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar. Add about 1/2 cup of roughly chopped ginger. Bring to a boil and then let steep and cool. Add a couple of tablespoons of the ginger to a glass. Add ice, some of the ginger slices and club soda.
You can also buy small 6 oz bottles and cans of some colas and sodas. This is a good and easy way to limit consumption - you only get a 6 oz serving.
07 Jan 2008 at 2:06 pm
Great tips. FYI- you got a mention on Lifehacker- CONGRATS! I am down to one or less sodas a day and replaced my addiction with a lot more water and a little more coffee
Coffee and iced tea are a lot cheaper than soda and I can get a lot more done than on just water 
07 Jan 2008 at 2:57 pm
I enjoy Metromint. It’s just water with mint. Available in most grocery stores.
07 Jan 2008 at 4:54 pm
Just a little FYI, Club Soda is Seltzer with Salt added. Seltzer is a better choice. Also avoid Tonic Water, its almost as bad as a diet soda.
07 Jan 2008 at 9:14 pm
Im still a teenager so the tempetation for pop is all around me but what happend to me was a few months ago my mom was diagnosed with diabetes so we basically got rid of all of the non diet pop and replaced it with diet, i hate the taste of diet so i switched it water… its a little extreme but it got the job done.
07 Jan 2008 at 10:24 pm
I used to drink 2 liters or more every day! First regular then diet. I replaced the pop with flavored seltzer (cherry’s my fav).
07 Jan 2008 at 10:43 pm
After having 2 babies in 1 year, I needed to get back into shape..fast. My original intent was to eat small portions, drink a ton of water, and work out. Well, the “ton” of water slowly got replaced with diet soda..After all, I had 2 little ones to chase after and my own business, I needed the caffiene! Before I knew it, I was drinking a minimum of 6 cans a day..sometimes more if I had an extra long day! The energy it gave me was great, but the sugar crashes..not so much! What worked for me was weaning myself from the pop and chewing on crushed ice; I realized that drinking so much soda was just a habit, and the ice kept me busy. I know that sounds stupid, but if it can help one person…
08 Jan 2008 at 7:17 am
I found the easiest way to do this was to substitute the soft drink with a 50/50 mix of fruit juice (the type you buy in the supermarket fridge section) and soda water. You get the carbonation, coldness, and fructose hit without any of the hideous chemicals. No caffeine, but then I think you’re living your life poorly if you need caffeine (particularly with every drink).
Once I’d become accustomed to that, I simply swapped the soda water for filtered tap water (at home) or cooler water (at work). I keep the juice refrigerated which allows the water to be kept in the fridge or at room temperature.
I still do the juice/tap water mix 2 years on, and have a can of soft drink perhaps once or twice a week, if that.
08 Jan 2008 at 8:11 am
[...] Tipnut.com offers advice on how to beat a soda addiction. [...]
09 Jan 2008 at 3:46 am
I am trying this at home..
Question: This might sound a bit silly, but, how do you crush the ice? I’ve got ice trays in the refrigerator, but the blocks come out quite big of course. I don’t want to have to resort to getting the blender out everyday to crush the ice? Is there an easy way?
09 Jan 2008 at 11:46 pm
Good question..my fridge is a side by side that has a cubed or crushed ice dispenser..(best investment I ever made!) You could maybe crush a large amount of ice at a time with your blender and put it in a big tupperware container with a tight fitting lid, or even large freezer bags and keep it on hand in your freezer..you could probably crush enough at one time to last you a week..I think that some grocery stores and gas stations also sell huge bags of crushed ice..good luck:)
10 Jan 2008 at 12:06 am
I cheat and just buy bags of crushed ice. It costs me about $5 a week, but for me it’s worthwhile. You could easily do as sara mentions above: crush up lots of ice at a time and keep in large sealed containers.
10 Jan 2008 at 12:50 am
I hate to be so negative, but YUCK! I don’t like ice, I’m happy with room temprature pop. So ice cold anything isn’t going to help. I do not like coffee, tea, lemon, lime, or mint. I have never liked soda water. In order to drink water, I just chug it. I have given up pop before cold turkey. I stayed off of it for a year. Craved it every single day until I started drinking it again. I eventually got used to drinking water and stopped chugging and started drinking it normally, but giving up pop again, I would have to start chugging it again.
Although I do like juice. I might be able to drink the juice and soda water. So I thank Matt for the idea. I will try that.
10 Jan 2008 at 6:20 am
[...] found an article on TipNut.com about how to stop drinking soda. The article focused on how to make a replacement for soda that [...]
10 Jan 2008 at 8:51 am
Hi, Just wanted to interject that you are not supposed to reuse water bottles. Once they have been used and oxygen hits the inside the chemical compound of the plastic is released into the “new” liquid that you refill the bottle with. Thus, you are in essence poisoning your body as a result. It is recommended to buy containers, preferably recyclable #’s-2,3,4, & I’m not sure about #5, for refill purposes, like the sports bottles. There are also metal ones that are supposed to last longer and be better for the environment. As far as substituting soda, herbal tea is tasty and has many healthful benefits. I know there is no fizz, but you may find that you don’t always need the carbonation. Use natural sugar for energy and some are caffeinated, such as mate or green tea for the high that will get you through the day without compromising your health. My kids love it too & of course lemonade is another alternative. Bonne Sante! To your health!
11 Jan 2008 at 7:11 pm
I did find and buy a machine that shaves the ice, made by Breville. It’s more for slushie type things though, so might be too small a pieces. Couldn’t find a proper ice crusher.
11 Jan 2008 at 11:34 pm
I think a slush idea would work great Fletch, I hope it appeals to you and works out :).
14 Jan 2008 at 12:52 pm
[...] How To Beat The Soda Pop Addiction [...]
09 Feb 2008 at 9:22 pm
Years ago when I was a kid, my mom purchased a “soda siphon”. It is a bottle that makes seltzer water. You purchase gas cartridges which make the seltzer in the bottle with plane tap or bottled water. At that time, I was still “hooked” on bottled soda, but still enjoyed the occasional home made soda….. 1/2 OJ and 1/2 seltzer.
As I grew up I found that I much preferred the “home made” soda. Soooo, as an adult, I purchased my own soda siphon. While some may use it for creating alcoholic drinks, I make my own soda. MUCH better - taste and health wise. I pour a 1/2 glass of healthy juice (grape, orange, etc) and fill the glass the rest of the way with my home made (from our water filter) seltzer. May not be a lot cheaper, but incredibly good, refreshing and much more healthful. I don’t drink bottled or canned sodas any longer, unless they are “natural” sodas. They taste sooooo much better and have some real health value.
13 Feb 2008 at 10:56 am
Pop (soda, soft drinks) add 20-30 lbs. to my weight. I know, I’ve quit before. You quit, then you get it in your head that you “deserve” an indulgence. I drink 3-4 12oz. Cokes a day, sometimes less. I’ve been slugging down pop since a toddler (50 yrs). I’m getting worried headed for the type two diabetes age. So here we go again. Here’s what tastes good to me when I can behave. Try juices without fructose–fructose is in everything–liquid lab sugar. Juicy Juice maybe. A decent sugar replacement can be xylitol made from wood alcohol! (Coke doesn’t want to use it–I begged them ;-).)It’s good with cereal too. Seltzer will give you that important “burn” and you can add it to anything. In the restaurant get water, and ask for a lemon wedge or two, and you can add a half to one sugar packet and be satisfied. Lemon does work somehow. Want something thicker (texture) like Coke? Try pomegranate syrup from the Middle Eastern food section and add water and seltzer. I want to try the other Middle Eastern flavors that they drink instead of pop. It’s just distracting to make a “soft drink” every time you need especially when you are in a hurry.
If you consider that a Coke might have 15-17 tsp of sugar (fructose), you could have a tsp of sugar here or there and not even get in the same neighborhood as soft drink amounts. Your head is the barrier and that’s why I am reminding and trying to convince myself again to quit. It’s hard and truly an addiction.
13 Feb 2008 at 5:23 pm
Good info guys, thanks :).
Shemayah I do agree with you, if we can find a bigger payoff gained by quitting a bad habit (one that means something to us or that we truly value), half the battle is won.
18 Feb 2008 at 6:53 am
[...] Drink more water This one is a no-brainer. Let’s say you drink three sodas a day from the vending machine at work. That’s a $3 a day, five days a week habit that you’re feeding. If you start drinking from the water cooler instead, you can start saving almost $780 a year. So not only will you be saving a substantial amount of money, you’ll be doing your body a huge favor by cutting all those calories and sugars out of your diet. And for those of you that are addicted to soda, here are some great ways to beat the addiction. [...]
16 Mar 2008 at 5:01 am
great blog, but I’m so glad that I’m not a soda pop person!
24 Mar 2008 at 2:50 pm
drinking a flavored carbonated water drink such as talking rain is a great substitute for diet pop. diet pepsi max is even more addicting then regular diet pepsi..
09 Apr 2008 at 7:44 am
[...] She lists several great suggestions for subtly (or not so subtly) flavoring your water, many of which I never would have thought of. For some more tips on keeping water delicious, check out TipNut’s post on beating the soda pop addiction with better tasting water. [...]
12 Apr 2008 at 8:51 am
I was understanding that it is possible to reuse water bottles, just not bottles or tupperware that have been exposed to heat or microwaves. This process is what “releases” the detrimental chemicals. I also understand that these chemicals released are cancer causing.
26 May 2008 at 6:14 pm
put rasberries blackberries and straw berries, and some ultra crushed ice in a mixer with some milk and a hint of vanilla. mix them well together. and in you cup you have a little piece of heaven. i first used to drink pop alot but then i read that pop only makes you more thirsty so i layed off the pop for i while until i couldnt bear it any more i needed it. then on mothers day i mayed that same smoothy with breakfast for my mom she loved i drank some and know i just hate pop compared to the ultra berry smoothy
27 May 2008 at 4:08 pm
Diet is more dangerous than the regular. It’s filled with more chemicals to replace the sugar but with the sweet taste.