I know this sounds preachy but sugar=evil, death etc....

[mmr007]

So I have the liver of a chronic alcoholic and I don't drink. What I have done my whole life is drink soda. Boy did I enjoy a soda with lunch and dinner, hell even breakfast. I quit soda this past April but only because I was getting sick of getting kidney stones every few years. However, even though I have always been an active and otherwise healthy person (people always mistake me for being 10-12 years younger than I am) there were other significant health issues that were lurking beneath my skin, confirmed by revelations in CT scans.
By necessity I have removed all sugar from my diet as well as most protein (my liver cannot handle me eating chicken or beef) and all carbs as well (ZERO pasta and such....oh the humanity). I do occasionally consume fructose in the form of an apple or pear but no more coffee with cream and sugar. It is roasted dandelion tea and turmeric, no sugar.
Anyway, sugar is in everything, especially here in the US, in massive quantities and it is literally killing us through diabetes, obesity and what I have NAFLD.... (non alcoholic fatty liver disease).
I didn't know how much damage I was doing to myself because for years it didn't manifest itself in something that was tangible...other than that I was prone to kidney stones...until recently when my health started to rapidly decline. It is unbelievable how much our entire body's system relies on a healthy liver.
I was hesitant to initially post this because I always detested people who "found the light" and demanded that others follow suit....but this really is a critical issue that affects tens of millions of people and many don't know it yet, that they are literally killing themselves.
By all means have an occasional soda, but maybe rethink a daily big gulp at 7/11 to start your day. An interesting side note, as I stated I voluntarily quit soda before I knew it would become a life saving necessity and within a week or two I had completely lost my sweet tooth. So when I went grocery shopping I no longer grabbed the rice crispy treats or latest flavor blasted cookie or any pastries. It all looked like it would taste gross. I had no desire to consume those items and my skin has begun to look significantly healthier still. Doctors did have to remove some (thankfully benign) tumors from my stomach and I have since also been able to stop taking omeprazole daily since my GERD has disappeared with the change in diet.
Anyway....(healthy) food for thought

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

Sorry to hear about your current situation. It sounds like you’re taking the necessary and difficult steps to working with your diagnoses. There’s other things you can do to help the liver function better, look into taking a good quality milk thistle extract supplement. This could help the liver function more optimally. The truth is that sugar is insidious, wether it be white bread, soda, or alcohol. Sugar in all it’s forms causes inflammation, and messes with blood sugar levels. It very well could be the cause of many behavioral issues (adhd/add etc.) It’s best we all take steps to make more informed decisions regarding our health. Prevention and knowledge is key here. I wish you the best.

 

[Hollowway]

Yeah, I keep trying to completely kick sugar, but it's hard. I DO only drink diet sodas, which helps. But soda in general isn't good. 100% agree with you, though. There's a lot of research to suggest that the heart disease we used to think was caused by cholesterol is actually caused by sugar (and the way it interacts with the fat).

 

[Lorcan Ward]

I can’t drink sugary drinks and most sugary foods, they make my skin flare up as if I stepped out of a sauna. Oily foods to the same. For some reason if I’m drinking alcohol it reduces it a lot so I can have a whiskey and coke or McDonald’s are a night out but I’ll still feel uncomfortable. I just had to draw a line years ago to not eat certain foods full stop.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

Interesting to see this posted here today because I'm heading down a bad road in this regard. About a month ago my wife picked up a book called ' Food/ What the Heck Should I Eat' by author Mark Hyman, MD. Although she has always eaten healthier than I have, this book genuinely opened her eyes regarding how bad some foods are... first and foremost, sugar. Since reading this book she's gained so much understanding of how sugars, processing, preservatives, fats, etc affect our long-term health. She's always been a big water drinker and honestly rarely drinks anything else although she now supplements it with tea. I on the other hand have had a hard time moving away from soda. But I'm trying as I reduce the amount of soda as well as other sweets. I'm eating healthier now than I ever have and I can feel it. I've eliminated pasta and bread as well. My sleep cycles are more consistent, my overall energy has increased, and my digestion seems to be improving just over the past 3 weeks.

Last weekend we went to the local Farmers Market and picked up some locally grown/ sourced eggs, kale, honey, tomatoes, and hard cheese. She's also been making salads with things that she never used to like and she's no longer drenching salads in Ranch dressing... now she'll only use avocado oil and balsamic vinegar. And her sweet tooth is now satiated with oranges, grapes, apples, etc... no more cereal, no milk, no cookies, etc. We haven't been to a fast food place since January this year ( besides getting a Dominoes pizza one night and doing Chick-fil-A on her birthday) and the things that I'm cooking at home are now comprised of simple/ natural ingredients and much healthier than what I used to cook. Just made some lentil soup last night and will be pairing that with grilled chicken for tonight's dinner. Honestly it feels so much better to feel better lol!

OP, sorry for the long-winded rely but this sincerely struck a chord with me. I truly hope that you're getting healthier and that you will update this thread as you feel you want or need to. Really glad that you "found the light". We have too!

 

[broj15]

Processed food is literal poison. Honestly eating a raw diet (not "if it's cooked it's dead" raw, but only using whole ingredients) is really the only way to avoid it, but unfortunately processed food is made to be way to convenient and extremely cheap.
That being said I'm definitely not perfect. I still eat at restaurants and probably have fast food once a week, but my main issue is I still drink about 2 red bulls a day (8.4oz cans so atleast it's not the big boys) . I hate it and am aware/fearful of the long term effects and I'll occasionally have some success in cutting back, but I always find my way back to it. I'm honestly addicted to caffeine to the point where if I wake up at 7-8am and I haven't had any caffeine by 11am then I know I have about another hour before I'm dealing with a persistent headache if I don't ingest some, and for someone like me who is COMPLETELY burnt out on coffee then I usually reach for a red bull. I've tried the sugar free but I can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners, which are arguably just as bad if not worse than real sugar.

Fr shit sucks. I'm only 28 and I know I don't feel it cuz I'm still "young" but I know that if I don't change the it will eventually catch up with me.

 

[odibrom]

@mmr007 it's sad to know you're not well, but also good you're getting better and flipping your life in order to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

I have always been an active guy, done some sk8boarding in the early 90s and then, by '94 step into martial arts, where I've kept myself since then, with some incursions in yoga at the same time and lately with some seldom BTT. I've always eat everything (fast/shit food included) until I entered the martial arts school I attend to. There, we were suggested to look a little closer to our diet. You see, when someone has a very intense physical activity, the body craves for energy and protein and all those nutrients. It is imperative that one should feed the body with clean food, or as clean as possible. By clean I mean less industrialized, more natural. So I started to cook (was about 17 at that time) a bit more conscious of my ingredients and started to include more vegetables, lots of more vegetables and specially, a bigger variety of vegetables. One thing lead to another and I became vegetarian by late '95. My transition was very peaceful, I dropped red meat first, then poultry and chicken and lastly fish and crabs and all animals. I kept drinking and eating dairy (cheese and yogurts) as well as eggs for quite some time. In the last 25 years that I have been vegie, I've had times of being full vegan (in the food side at least) and others were I do eat an egg or so once in a while and ice creams...

I've concluded my degree and master and am currently battling to finish my PhD. I have 2 healthy kids with 12 and 9 years old all within these last 25 years on vegetarianism.

It works for me, but I understand it may not work as well for others. The biggest lessons I've learnt with this diet was not in terms of what to eat or not to eat, but more of how what to eat and when. I mean, our city life has fucked up completely our understanding of food and how to relate to food. Instead of something to be cherished and religious (as it re-connects us with our most basic selves) it became something which we have no time for or we should fear, it has to be a fast meal or we loose something that society tells us as being "precious" and "indispensable" for our social existence, it has to be light or we're going fat and so on (bring on the list of food disorders). What I learnt was that, if I loose the train, I'll get the next one, if I don't get that job, I'm glad some else did, I've learnt that there is room for everyone under the sun.

This to say that, besides of choosing better ingredients in my meals and trying to have balanced meals for my personal needs (and my kids' and close family), I've learnt to cool down, to stress out and dodge others' stress. People scream at each others too often for no reason. It enters our soul and therefore it reflects in our body with anxiety and other mental illnesses. Our body reacts to our thoughts, so I try my maximum to stress out all those stupid society shit and this includes most TV adds and programs (I rarely watch TV). They stopped working for me. I will not run to get the latest iphone or latest shit that is hyped as fuck when released to public. That corrodes our soul and body and that has manifestations in our liver, kidneys, lungs, hearts, brains... and so on.

Vegetarianism works for me, but an informed vegetarianism about what ingredients have what nutrients, how to combine and cook them so they deliver their maximum, so my body can work easy for the shitty days of work and city life ahead. Yes, I do get sick once in a while, but I generally recover without any meds (and I have several close family members that are neuro surgeons). My point is, if one is to eat red meat, eat less and less often, compensate with more vegetables and run away from animal fried fats (fried butter and cheese and all those venoms)... I do eat carbs, like brown rise or pasta, home made whole grain bread, homemade nuts butter (only a tea spoon of salt for 1kg of nuts, either sesame, almond nuts, peanuts and so on), lots of fruit (mostly bananas and apples). Whole grain cereals are way better than clean white cereals and that have been on my diet since day 1 of vegetarianism.

So, my final say here is, dive deep into your food studies, ditch any ready made shit, start cooking and trying different vegetables, lots of them. If possible, opt for organic food and finally, most important, give yourself time to eat properly and to chew in peace, savoring every little piece of food. Do question everything anyone say about food to its limits.

 

[ThomasUV777]

Sorry to hear that man. I've been on the keto diet for a couple of years now. It's become my way of life at this point and I love it.
No more fatigue, eat all the meat and fat you want. You don't have to think too long about what you eat etc. Meat & mayo!

And you're right, you can find sugar in the most unexpected foods. I've become one of those people that checks the label for everything now. If there's
more than 5% carbs in there, I ditch it.

That being said, every couple of months I totally splurge on sugar: I get all the biscuits, chocolate, pizza & chocolatemilk that I can handle. The day after really feels like a hangover.

TL;DR : The Keto diet rocks.

 

[Yul Brynner]

Man I was raised on candy and soda for lunch or breakfast or snacks on the road. Drinking litres of sun kist and mountain dew while playing commodore 64, NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, and XBOX. My mom was a shit cook that didn't really care about our nutrition. Breakfast was a toaster strudel, lunch was at school, dinner was the cheapest cardboard microwave pizza, or pizza rolls, or boiled hotdogs, or a microwaved piece of bologna that forms a bowl for canned chili or some other horrible shit. I was seriously skinny and underweight growing up. I had to get a waiver to join the army at 127lbs after I came back to try again after getting to 127 from 119. I was 18, 6' tall and 119lbs. As soon as I was able to be aware of my body and self image and that people were making fun of me for being so skinny, I had really low self esteem. For a long time, it seemed like no matter how much I ate and how much PT I was doing in the army, I was still thin. It wasn't until my last deployment when we were in a building in Baghdad and couldn't run three miles every day that I began to put on weight. After that deployment, I got out of the army and the weight packed on until I topped out at around 215 maybe 220. Still a thin dude but with a gut, man tits, and a fat neck/chin. I feel disgusting and ashamed of myself just the same as when I was a teenager. Only now it's because I am overweight.

I really miss the motivation from the army. Do it or else. I don't have that anymore and my shitty schedule plus weak self discipline means I can go maybe two days without sugar before I freak the fuck out and eat a bunch of candy. I can maybe work out for a week or so before I lose discipline and give up because of bullshit always fucking up my schedule.

I miss the army food. I came back home and couldn't eat my grandmothers cooking because it was so damn salty. I couldn't stand drinking soda or eating candy because it was so sweet it burned my throat. I want that again but I need to find some way to temper my self discipline again.

 

[thraxil]

About a month ago my wife picked up a book called ' Food/ What the Heck Should I Eat' by author Mark Hyman, MD. Although she has always eaten healthier than I have, this book genuinely opened her eyes regarding how bad some foods are... first and foremost, sugar. Since reading this book she's gained so much understanding of how sugars, processing, preservatives, fats, etc affect our long-term health.

If she likes that, I'd suggest following it up with Dr. Michael Greger's "How Not to Die". Greger is an *extremely* thorough researcher and the book is an entirely evidence based approach. My partner picked up his "How Not to Diet", which I haven't read yet but seems to cover mostly the same material, just with a bit more of a focus on weight loss rather than avoiding or reversing disease. She had a similar "life changing" reaction to learning how harmful so much of the standard western diet is.

I grew up with hippie parents on a farm where we grew most of our own food. I barely ever got processed food as a child and sweets other than fruit were a less common treat. I rebounded a bit from that when I was a teenager and had money from odd jobs and could buy food myself. I drank a *lot* of soda and ate a lot of crap. That continued through college. I was a Physics/Engineering student and I'd drink a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi every night to get through my homework and studying. I think the only reason that period didn't completely destroy my health was that the school cafeteria where I was on a meal plan had really long lines for the regular hot food. I was always in a hurry and I discovered that there was no line for the salad cart, so I got in a habit of bypassing the regular line and just making myself a giant salad with beans and chickpeas and walnuts and every vegetable I could pile on for my lunch and dinner pretty much every day. After about a semester of that, I realized I hadn't eaten meat in months and had no real desire to. I went vegetarian and have been vegetarian or vegan ever since (20+ years).

The soda did completely destroy my teeth though. It wrecked the enamel and I've had to have plenty of expensive dental work as a result. A few years after getting out of school I decided to quit caffeine and that involved quitting soda as well. After two years I went back to caffeine, but only in the form of black coffee or tea.

Once I got out of school, I stayed vegetarian but went back to eating a lot of convenient junk and not really paying attention to my health or diet. In my late twenties I realized that I had put on about 35lbs without really noticing (hadn't stepped on a scale in years). I got serious about health and diet again, took it off over the course of about 6 months and have kept it off for the last decade.

These days I don't explicitly avoid sugar or processed foods, but the bulk of my diet is essentially whole-food plant-based and that gives me a pretty good buffer to deal with occasional indulgences (and nightly beer).

My advice is to focus on *including* "good", whole foods in your diet first rather than *excluding* "bad" foods. Eg, if you are trying to cut out soda, whenever you feel like drinking a soda, first make yourself drink a big glass of water or green tea or something, wait 5 minutes, and then see if you still want the soda. If you do, then drink it. Similarly for food, try to get a few servings of greens, legumes, whole grains, fruit, etc. into your diet every day and then see if you're still hungry for the processed stuff. A restriction mindset takes a lot of willpower to maintain. It's much easier to develop a habit by adding something new rather than forbidding yourself something that you are already used to. (if you're like mmr007 and already at the point of NAFLD or similar, you might have no choice; do what your doctor tells you in that case instead of listening to internet randos).

 

[diagrammatiks]

Is most of this stuff sugar or is it high fructose corn syrup?

 

[thraxil]

Is most of this stuff sugar or is it high fructose corn syrup?

There's really very little difference. There is research showing that HFCS is particularly bad compared to sucrose or other sugars (there's like one OH bond that gets broken down in your liver and then it's all the same to your body), but ultimately large amounts of any of them tend towards the same negative outcomes. HCFS just happens to be particularly common in processed food in the US because the government subsiizes corn farmers and make it cheaper than sugar from other sources.

 

[Demiurge]

For a period of time, I thought I was doing myself a favor by switching to "Mexican" Coke made with cane sugar, but then I realized that it's all just sugar-water anyway. Useless calories either way.

 

[TedEH]

Maybe I'm just food-dumb but isn't everything basically sugar? Like, I can understand not drinking soda, not stuffing your face with candy, etc., but "sugar" on it's own seems to be too vague a term to be very helpful in terms of deciding what to eat.

So you start with something like candy - sure, obviously that's just sugar, so don't eat that.
Then you go, ok, but I want a snack. Candy is out. Cake is out. Fruit? How about fruit?
Fruit is also mostly sugar. Sure, it's also fibre and other good stuff, and it's much less densely packed with sugar, but an apple is still sugar. Lots of "healthy looking" options are processed in a way that add sugar to the mix or eliminate all the stuff that isn't sugar.
Ok so veggies. Veggies must be good right? Just go to town on a bag of carrots.
Except no, those also have sugar in them.

My understanding, as flawed as it might be, has always been that food is basically made up of sugar, protein, fat, fibre, etc. If you just cut sugar and cut protein and cut fat, etc., what are you left with? I mean, you need a significant amount of "energy" from your food to function, it has to come from somewhere.

I went down a road of thinking I was being clever with how I was eating years ago and while I got healthier in some ways, I got unhealthier in other ways. And ended up with what could probably be called an eating disorder.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

If she likes that, I'd suggest following it up with Dr. Michael Greger's "How Not to Die". Greger is an *extremely* thorough researcher and the book is an entirely evidence based approach. My partner picked up his "How Not to Diet", which I haven't read yet but seems to cover mostly the same material, just with a bit more of a focus on weight loss rather than avoiding or reversing disease. She had a similar "life changing" reaction to learning how harmful so much of the standard western diet is.

I grew up with hippie parents on a farm where we grew most of our own food. I barely ever got processed food as a child and sweets other than fruit were a less common treat. I rebounded a bit from that when I was a teenager and had money from odd jobs and could buy food myself. I drank a *lot* of soda and ate a lot of crap. That continued through college. I was a Physics/Engineering student and I'd drink a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi every night to get through my homework and studying. I think the only reason that period didn't completely destroy my health was that the school cafeteria where I was on a meal plan had really long lines for the regular hot food. I was always in a hurry and I discovered that there was no line for the salad cart, so I got in a habit of bypassing the regular line and just making myself a giant salad with beans and chickpeas and walnuts and every vegetable I could pile on for my lunch and dinner pretty much every day. After about a semester of that, I realized I hadn't eaten meat in months and had no real desire to. I went vegetarian and have been vegetarian or vegan ever since (20+ years).

The soda did completely destroy my teeth though. It wrecked the enamel and I've had to have plenty of expensive dental work as a result. A few years after getting out of school I decided to quit caffeine and that involved quitting soda as well. After two years I went back to caffeine, but only in the form of black coffee or tea.

Once I got out of school, I stayed vegetarian but went back to eating a lot of convenient junk and not really paying attention to my health or diet. In my late twenties I realized that I had put on about 35lbs without really noticing (hadn't stepped on a scale in years). I got serious about health and diet again, took it off over the course of about 6 months and have kept it off for the last decade.

These days I don't explicitly avoid sugar or processed foods, but the bulk of my diet is essentially whole-food plant-based and that gives me a pretty good buffer to deal with occasional indulgences (and nightly beer).

My advice is to focus on *including* "good", whole foods in your diet first rather than *excluding* "bad" foods. Eg, if you are trying to cut out soda, whenever you feel like drinking a soda, first make yourself drink a big glass of water or green tea or something, wait 5 minutes, and then see if you still want the soda. If you do, then drink it. Similarly for food, try to get a few servings of greens, legumes, whole grains, fruit, etc. into your diet every day and then see if you're still hungry for the processed stuff. A restriction mindset takes a lot of willpower to maintain. It's much easier to develop a habit by adding something new rather than forbidding yourself something that you are already used to. (if you're like mmr007 and already at the point of NAFLD or similar, you might have no choice; do what your doctor tells you in that case instead of listening to internet randos).

I'll pass this along to my wife as she's always up for educating herself and reading in general. I've also suggested to her before, to never get too hung up on only one person's advice... to remain open to different viewpoints and other people's perspectives.

My sister and I grew up similarly as you... without processed foods. Our intake was for the most part fresh fruit, fresh veggies, as well as our family's beef and poultry... everything fresh off the farm. We only recognized processed sugars as occasional "treats" and that only came about around Christmas time. We were seldom allowed anything pre-sweetened nor were we allowed any fast food or soda. We might have the occasional sweetened juice or cookie from time to time but that was about it besides some school lunches at times that we were unable to brown-bag it.

But my parents divorced when I was 11-12 yrs old and things rapidly changed. I think that my mom felt guilty about the divorce and subsequently started bringing in a lot of sugary snacks, cereals, soda into the house. Also she was working 2 to 3 jobs at any given time so cooking fresh became less of an an option for her. Going forward into high-school and college, my diet only got worse. Of course I was invincible so as I continued with many athletic activities, I also loaded myself up with carbs. I still ate lots of salads and good things but combined with all the carbs and sugars, I developed very unbalanced and unhealthy eating habits... up all night partying or studying with endless pizza, Doritos, and Mt Dew became acceptable and typical.

And that's where I'm at now. We bought a house almost 3 years ago and since that time, almost every day is filled with projects, repairs, renovation type stuff so I'm working constantly. I drink a ton of Gatorade Zero throughout the day and although that may be somewhat bad as opposed to simply drinking water, it's at least better than soda in the hydrating sense. But my eating habits are just screwed up. I don't or can't bring myself to eat early in the day so late into the afternoon and overnight I wind up sedentary and eating unhealthy stuff. I try to offset that by also making good food every week.. fish, lentils, beans, hummus, fresh fruits, etc. but it's like I'm fighting a losing battle due to my lack of self-control/ discipline.

Unfortunately, I've walked this road most of my life... eating a sleeve of Oreo's and then trying to cancel it out with a carrot lol. And as my activity level decreased later in life, the pounds just started piling on. I've always remained active but it's just not the right kind of active... not like weight-lifting, cardio, etc. So my weight is up and my muscle mass is down. And I feel like shit most of the time... aches, back pain, allergies, congestion, exhaustion, etc.

These days my exercise routine is more just pushing myself... many days out in the brutal heat and humidity mowing, weed-eating, pruning, landscaping, cleaning, raking, sweeping, etc, etc until the project is done or until I feel like I'm gonna die... like for real, gonna die. For the life of me, I just can't seem to get into a consistent regime between maintaining a healthy diet, consistent sleep cycle, and positive exercise. Along with all of this, my mental/ emotional health is also suffering due to a life of hardship and loss that's left me with a constant underlying vein of depression and anxiety. So food is unfortunately filling the social and emotional voids also.

It's sad to read what I wrote in this thread just 9 months ago and feel like I'm just not able to actually make the positive changes stick long-term. Sometimes motivation is just so hard to come by... and next to impossible to maintain indefinitely.. at least for me it seems.

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

All sugar isn’t used in the same way by the body. Fruits and vegetables higher in sugar are perfectly fine as they contain fiber which slows the release of sugar into your blood. Obviously you shouldn’t sit around and eat one banana after another. Or binge on sweet potatoes, I find banana’s too sweet anymore personally. But I think the key is to eat a well rounded diet, veggies (think colors eat green, orange, yellow, red and purple/blue.) fruits (the more active you are the higher your carbohydrate intake via whole grains and fruits needs to be) healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, coconut, fish, nuts and seeds) protein (seeds and nuts, fish, legumes, and ethically raised sustainable meat). The better you eat and more often you exercise you get more wiggle room with foods before I pack on weight, bonus.

 

[jaxadam]

Sugar/candy/soda actually makes me physically sick. Like sweaty, nauseous, etc. The older I get the worse it seems to get.

There are different sugars, and there are differences; there's sucrose (fructose/glucose) which is basically table sugar. There's glucose, fructose, and dextrose (glucose made from corn). They all are slightly different and act differently in the body.

Fructose and glucose are monosaccharides. Sucrose, lactose, etc. are disaccharides.

Both glucose and fructose are absorbed similarly, but glucose has an immediate impact on insulin levels. Fructose actually has to be converted to glucose in order to be used in the body.

Glucose is generally used for energy or replenishing "glycogen reserves". Fructose is either converted into glucose or stored as fat.

So for sports nutrition purposes, you typically want a 2:1 carb:sugar post-workout, and you want the sugar to be glucose/dextrose to initiate an insulin spike.

 

[Iron1]

Sorry to hear that man. I've been on the keto diet for a couple of years now. It's become my way of life at this point and I love it.
No more fatigue, eat all the meat and fat you want. You don't have to think too long about what you eat etc. Meat & mayo!

And you're right, you can find sugar in the most unexpected foods. I've become one of those people that checks the label for everything now. If there's
more than 5% carbs in there, I ditch it.

That being said, every couple of months I totally splurge on sugar: I get all the biscuits, chocolate, pizza & chocolatemilk that I can handle. The day after really feels like a hangover.

TL;DR : The Keto diet rocks.

Same. We've been eating clean Keto for 3 years now. Feel better than I have in over a decade.

Check out the movie Magic Pill and the rest tied to it, and prepare to go down the rabbit hole that leads to the realization that the same companies that are poisoning us with sugar in everything processed are owned by the pharmaceutical companies who are selling us drugs to "fix" the sugar induced health issues.

They're literally selling a cure for an illness they're creating.

 

[c7spheres]

I'd really love to find a soda alternative. Something that actually gives me that brain fix and tastes good too.

 

[Iron1]

We drink Zevia soda. Sweetened with Stevia. Virgils makes some amazing no-sugar sodas too, but they're not as readily available where we live.