My Soda addiction

I have gotten better on my quest to kick the Diet Pepsi habit. I have tried several times to quit drinking this stuff. I have found that I just can not drink it at all, I do not have enough self discipline to have just one or one once in a while. The benefits to my wallet have been great, (In 2004 Americans spent 66 billion on carbonated drinks!) and I am sure that the benefit to my body will be much greater. I always had a threshold of 3 dollars a case, and that as also helped since now it is not very often that you can find soda under $3 a case. I keep telling myself that it provides NO benefit to buy and drink this stuff, not one! Now if I can get the rest of the family to give up the soda, we have cut back quite a bit, one step at a time.

An interesting web sight on the dangers of aspartame, splenda or artificial sweeteners in general, check out this blog .

I drank diet soda because I thought I was making a healthy, non-caloric choice and the flavor lent to a feeling of satiation. All things in moderation, can be great. But with me, and I suspect there are millions of others who drink it like water. I actually drink it in lieu of water. Not only was I ingesting a ton of artificial chemicals, I was dehydrating myself!

What is so addicting about soda, is it the carbonation? The artificial sweeter or sweeteners in general?

There are several theories ranging from caffeine, sweeteners, and carbonation. All I know is that it is really hard to quit and if you Google “soda addiction” you can find many others who also struggle with the same problem whether it is sugar or diet sodas, it seems there is a level of “addiction”. I have tried to research what causes this stuff to be so addicting and I have found nothing.

Any comments on what you have done to help would be greatly appreciated!