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Which is preferred...


Travis Lay

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My first Whole 30 ends next Thursday and I have a question about drinks. Which is better? Diet soda or a juice like Naked juice? (like the Mightly Mango version which is all fruit puree)

If drinking calories is bad then it is better to drink diet soda

If eating (or in this case drinking) real food is better then the Nake juice is better

Which would the ISWF community prefer?

I am talking like once or twice a week having something like a diet soda or nake juice. And I'm talking a big serving...a liter of it.

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Both are out during your whole 30. Juice is not the same as eating your fruit. It takes a whole lot more fruit to make a glass of juice than just eating an orange (tons of sugar) and your body does not react the same to drinking your food as it does to eating it. As far as diet soda, not only does it awaken the sugar dragon, but there is zero redeeming qualities. There's a bunch of negatives about diet soda. You might want to do a search of these forums to get all the info on it. Kombucha is a great treat for me and very good for you. It sort of takes the place of an adult beverage to me. Hard to explain. Just make sure you get one that has no more than 2 grams of sugar in the stats. The sugar is used in the fermintation of the Kombucha, but a little is left over. You just don't want to see added sugar in the ingredients. GTs Gingerade is my favorite. :)

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neither of these is a good idea. BUT if you must do it (post-whole 30) my vote is for the juice.

now the real question: why do you feel you need to drink a liter of this?

EDIT: Kombucha is great, but I wouldn't drink a liter of Kombucha either, especially your first time...

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Thanks for the responses.

I had a hard time kicking the diet soda dragon at the start of my Whole 30 and now I don't feel the cravings very often at all, but every once in a while I have that urge. I think I can live with drinking one once a week, maybe twice.

I think the 1 liter is a bad start. Maybe I'll just try a can of soda once a week and see if that is OK, but when it comes to "real food" I think I would be better off with a Nake Juice, but that comes at a cost in calories.

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I've been a diet soda addict in the past (got hooked in college, often had like a 2 liter per day for way longer than I'd care to admit). When you're done with your whole30 (and it seems like you indicated you were planning for after), really think about it before you go back to that.

Do you follow Whole9 on facebook? They just posted a study this week about aspartame (the artificial sweetener in diet coke) and MSG interactions affecting blood sugar in neonates. Yes, diet coke doesn't have MSG, but the study also discusses the affects aspartame has alone on blood sugar.

From personal experience, as I weaned myself off it recently (the last 2 years were slow progress until my Whole30) I found this to be in line with what I felt. When I had a diet pop, I often had significantly increased hunger and sugar cravings. I never noticed it before, but I was drinking it so often that I just always felt that way. It wasn't until I was only having it occasionally that I noticed that effect.

There are quite a few studies in recent years (you'll have to do some looking, I can't remember the specifics) that have shown that artificial sweeteners actually lead to increased calorie intake and eventual weight gain. The gist being that your brain perceives sugar but doesn't get it, so your brain makes you consume more to make up for the trick played on it.

There are also some studies that have shown aspartame affects mood (brain chemistry). In that people with mood issues (either anxiety or depression) required increased dosages of their medications when they had increased intake of aspartame.

You can always apply the more or less healthy question. Or just experiment on yourself :) and see how it goes.

Good luck, it's not an easy issue for some of us.

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Travis, you said you still have an occasional craving for a soda. What do you think will happen when you reintroduce it "occasionally"? You think the frequency of these cravings will go up or go down? IMO adding back the soda, even occasionally, will reawaken the cravings you're trying to get rid of. And the soda isn't special. It isn't a very seldom homemade treat that you can't have any time you want. I think it's a BAD idea!

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Everyone is making a good case against the soda. I appreciate that and I think I will continue to not drink it.

...but I need something other than water to drink. I am not a fan of tea and my wife drinks the Kambucha (or however you spell it) and I am not really a fan of that either. I know I will drink beer occasionally, but if I need something else to drink than water I guess it will be a Naked Juice. I was worried about the option of drinking 150-200 calories versus 0 in soda. But I think from based on the answers above the fake ingredients in soda are not worth it, even if it has 0 calories.

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Everyone is making a good case against the soda. I appreciate that and I think I will continue to not drink it. ...but I need something other than water to drink. I am not a fan of tea and my wife drinks the Kambucha (or however you spell it) and I am not really a fan of that either. I know I will drink beer occasionally, but if I need something else to drink than water I guess it will be a Naked Juice. I was worried about the option of drinking 150-200 calories versus 0 in soda. But I think from based on the answers above the fake ingredients in soda are not worth it, even if it has 0 calories.

Another post Whole30 option might be to play with juices as flavor to water. You might find that straight up juice is too sweet post Whole30. Before my Whole30 (since I've been drinking water, tea, black coffee and sparkling water), I would add small amounts of citrus juice to water for just a hint of taste. There are some great recipes online for jazzing up water with basil or lemongrass or mint....

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I can't drink cold water all day long either. My solution was to heat it. For some reason, drinking hot water all day out of a coffee thermos works for me. I was a coffee drinker and I quit that at the same time I started my Whole30, too, but now the hot water gives me everything I need and I have no craving for coffee, either. I was surprised that worked because I was thinking I had to have flavor in my water, but I didn't, and changing the presentation was enough. Worth a try to see if it might work for you.

I never needed a study to tell me that aspartame is a toxic substance. From the first time it was introduced, I would get headaches and cloudy thinking after drinking or eating anything with it. I drank regular soda instead, believing that sugar was the healthier alternative. It was when my kids started asking for soda that I realized I needed to give it up for good. It was hard at first (and everything in me wants to scream for you not to try it as an occasional treat, because you've done the hard work already and I think it's a serious risk that it would all unravel quickly), but the further away you get from it, the more it looks and sounds like a foreign substance that has no place in your life.

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Have you tried many types of herbal tea? Maybe there's one out there that you'd really like? I'm hooked on a licorice spice tea (yogi), I've gone back and rechecked probably half a dozen times to be sure there's no sugar or other hidden culprits, because it is SO sweet (cinnamon/cardamom type sweet). I like it hot or iced, or heck, room temp!! I have also mixed it with pellegrino if I'm in the mood for something fizzy. .

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