Tea may be the key to me dropping soda
(If you want that to rhyme even more obnoxiously, change soda to "so-dee")
IMPORTANT: Again, I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist. Hopefully “Newbtrition” can merely be the spark that ignites a greater interest in your health. The fun part is that there’s a good chance you’ll feel better, maybe A LOT better.
If you were to ask A Few Weeks Ago Me to rank my most unlikely improvements, possibly* dropping soda (Coke Zero, mostly) from my rotation either would have ranked first, or close to it. Most days, I was lucky to stop at two cans of Coke Zero.
(Amusingly, I grumbled when they changed the formula for my sludge. Didn’t matter, as I kept shovelling that sludge down my gullet.)
Well … I think I might have found a formula.
Now, I have no clue if this would work for you the same way it would work for me. So, failing that, I’m hoping you merely consider a few things to either replace your soda intake, or at least reduce how much you shovel that sludge down your gullet (to use scientific jargon).
Between various seltzer water options (think La Croix, Bubly, generic versions that are just as good [if not better]), hugely beneficial teas, and good old coffee, I haven’t missed soda much at all. In the long run, maybe I will once again give in to the sludge; frankly, I fear its dark power. Even in that dark scenario, I will at least be aware of some superior beverages. And hopefully you will, too.
* - Don’t want to jinx it. Although, if I talk about not-jinxing it, is that jinxing it? But what about this footnote? Ahhhhh.
The fairly obvious: seltzer water
As far as I can tell, if there are differences between water and carbonated waters (seltzer, sparkling, so on), those differences are modest.
And the differences between water and soda are gargantuan. My general impression is that if you’re splitting hairs between soda and diet soda, you’re really just pondering which Door of Bad Ideas you’d like to open.
So, sparkling water can be a huge difference-maker, as long as you check the label and make sure that there isn’t much/any funny stuff.
Overall, it’s wonderful that you can get that fizzy fix with fizzy water. My guess is that many of you may need more than just that, though. Personally, I wonder if drinking tea and fizzy water filled that void for me.
Note: coffee was there, and still is.
A crucial, overriding question of ‘Newbtrition’ —> what does it do for me? Does it actually taste good, or is it just a habit?
We all come to revelations at different times, and under different circumstances.
For me, it was a gradual thing with soda. Deep down, I increasingly asked: am I even tasting this “pop?” Am I just drinking it out of habit, and a certain tingle of repetition? Maybe I was merely searching for some beverage variety and caffeine?
Honestly, I think you and I could weed out certain unhealthy substances simply by applying that basic format. It can work with so many things.
Do I even taste this cheese? Sometimes, the answer is an emphatic “Yes.” But take a moment with upcoming meals to ask yourself that question. In certain sandwiches, a sauce or meat will overpower the flavor of that cheese, rendering it as filler. If that’s the case, then you could save iffy dairy, sneaky-bad sodium, and more calories than I think some would truly intuit.
Honestly, such a question really helped me jettison meat, too. Take an inventory. Then ask yourself: what was the actual star of that meal? Was it the underlying chicken wing, or the buffalo sauce? Did you love that blackened chicken because of the rather neutral chicken it covered, or the cajun seasoning? I dunno, gang, I think “tastes like chicken” is damning with faint praise.
Such a method of self-evaluation can help you mix things in.
For the ideas I throw out that leave you rolling your eyes, fair enough. (If you savor soda … you’re simply different from me. That’s fine, though that stuff is so bad that I need to bug you for at least half of this parenthetical aside.) Every now and then, you might realize that a thing you always eat or drink is actually totally replaceable.
A regime of coffee (now without dairy), green tea (never with dairy), and hibiscus tea (you guessed it) interspersed with fizzy water and plain-old H2O has worked great for me so far. Realizing that I just sort of drank cola out of habit made a huge difference for me kicking that nasty habit (so far). If that same train of thought works for you, then “Newbtrition” has been worth every second.
Moving on to more of the nitty-gritty building blocks …
Rock that coffee (and/or tea) without dairy, if you can
As a neophyte, I can’t give a final verdict on milk negating some/all/any of the benefits of coffee and tea. I just know that, right now, I’m excluding dairy from both my coffee and tea.
Personally, I highlight coffee here for a simple reason: at the moment, I find it easy to drink even a polarizing tea like hibiscus tea without anything (or with chalky ginger that only makes it more polarizing, awkward lol).
But coffee? I guess I just don’t like it enough on its own. At least not yet?
(After all … weeks ago, I underestimated how delicious so many fruits and vegetables are, especially if you’re not shovelling processed foods in your mouth as often.)
Anyway, very recent research reviewed by “Newbtrition” favorite Dr. Michael Greger postulated that milk can negatively impact the benefits of a variety of healthy delights, including coffee and tea.
From what I can tell, milk/dairy may not necessarily make coffee and/or tea “bad” for you. To oversimplify, it might just reduce it to a more neutral source of caffeine. Still beats the hell out of soda.
Personally, though, I want to increase my odds of absorbing all of the good stuff. Thus, I’ve begun what could be a lengthy journey of finding what sort of soy/almond/cashew/coconut product might enhance that coffee experience (truly, the sheer array of options is overwhelming).
My guess? I’ll probably just eventually get used to drinking it “black,” even if it means not putting anything into my gimmicky flavored beans. (Lately, it’s been Tim Horton’s maple from grocery stores, a shockingly effective option.)
If you want an extra nudge, an article like this from Hopkins Medicine should get you thinking about how much not-effed-with coffee can help you. The elevator pitch: it can reduce risks of certain types of cancer, lower odds of heart disease, and … lots of good stuff.
There’s even some talk of coffee and depression, justifying any number of “Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee” memes.
(WHICH ARE HILARIOUS, OF COURSE!)
Consider the tea spilled
AMERICAN: Dang it, those limeys were onto something, turns out tea’s real good for ya!
Over the years, I heard rumblings about how great tea can be for you. During this little odyssey (or has it been an Iliad?) of mine, I’ve stumbled upon tea as a pretty commendable missing piece to the not drinking soda puzzle.
I want to make this clear: “Newbtrition” is also “Newb-tea-tion.” I’ve only glanced the tip of the iceberg here. Luckily, that iceberg* is hydrating and full of antioxidants.
Let’s roll out my little Caffeine Regime® again, this time in structured subheading form. If you’re a skimmer, perhaps this image will replace a thousand-ish words?
Start the day groggy and dehydrated (partial blame: CPAP, full blame: me), enjoy some coffee and maybe a shake with a million things, including amla.
2. Green tea
Full disclosure: sites like WebMD do rain on the parade a bit, so if you really don’t like green tea … there you go? Personally, I’ve seen enough, and it’s at least a nice bridge away from soda (less caffeine, but some, etc.)
That said, it’s not the first tea I sought out. Lately, I’ve mushed green tea between my first caffeine beverage of the day (coffee with some sort of dairy substitute) and a tea that seemingly lacks any caffeine at all …
3. Hibiscus tea
As someone concerned about high-blood pressure, cholesterol, and GENERAL HEART STUFF, hibiscus tea really heeded that siren call. This summary from Cleveland Clinic may rain on the parade ever so slightly, but there seems to be enough conjecture about helping with GENERAL HEART STUFF that I’m happy to gulp it down.
That said, a note. While green tea is very much the tea experience (at times bland, definitely inoffensive, delicious if you add stuff to it — but add good stuff, please), hibiscus tea has been deemed “sour tea” for a reason. You might make silly faces when you first try it.
As something of a TANGSTER myself, though … I enjoy it. Or, I should say: I enjoy it with the context that it might help me in my overall plan to lower my blood pressure, cholesterol, and generally improve my GENERAL HEART STUFF.
You might not like this, but I gotta mention boring old water
Both Phil Kessel and, perhaps, my Mom, don’t like the taste of water. But, perhaps we get to the “homework” part of all of this. Sometimes you just gotta gulp down that water.
Cuz, honestly, if you’re feeling bad, there’s a good chance you’re dehydrated.
At first, I was going to write “you’re just dehydrated.” Then I recalled that average Americans either get 33% or 50% more sodium in their diets than they’re supposed to, and I realized that you might be dehydrated plus™.
(Nailed it.)
Anyway, drinking water is probably one of those “eat your fruits and vegetables” and “eat fewer processed foods” and “don’t put your flesh in that electric socket” and “maybe don’t agitate the bull” and “perhaps the people telling you to drink bleach to remove your COVID aren’t working in your best interests”-type bits of advice that just fly by your head.
I get it. Drinking water is sort of a daily challenge, whether you embrace it (easier mode) or Kessel it (hard mode, but people tell folk tales if you break NHL records).
You should still do it. Really, you might want to drink that soda just because it’s an exceptionally flawed way to get water and caffeine.
Shit, did I still somehow do marketing for Coca-Cola? I guess they could use a W this week, though.
