So many people love drinking sodas, otherwise known as pop – or Coke if you’re southern. 🙂 I used to be completely addicted to them. Now I prefer water, and there are plenty of good reasons that you should, too!
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I would drink about 4-5 sodas per day for a good portion of my life. I remember coming home from school as a teen and drinking Dr. Pepper after Dr. Pepper. At the time, the calories didn’t matter at all, of course, and the caffeine didn’t seem to affect me either. If anything, drinking them made me TIRED!
Once I got a little older, I decided that I needed to be drinking diet sodas. Since I drank so many, I knew that the calories would start to impact my waistline, so if I could drink diet sodas, it would be guilt-free…right? Well, I thought so at the time! This continued into most of my 20s. I would go out for a late dinner (or midnight mommy IHOP meeting) and drink 6 or more Diet Cokes and go home and go straight to bed. Clearly, that couldn’t be good for me, but I felt like it was probably fine since I was sleeping alright AND they were diet! No guilt, remember?
After Charlie’s VBAC birth, I immediately noticed that he could not tolerate caffeine through my breastmilk. Those diet sodas were bothering his tummy and ruining his sleep patterns. When he was about a week old, I went cold turkey and stopped drinking caffeine. I would buy Diet Rite or caffeine free diet root beers instead.
Drinking water instead never even occurred to me until I tried the 21 Day Sugar Detox back in January. On the detox (and in paleo eating), you just do not drink sodas. Done deal. I transitioned to only drinking water, with some occasional unsweetened tea in there. I’ve been a water chugger ever since!
Now, finally….
5 Reasons I Love Water More Than Soda
- I am not flooding my body with added sugar or chemicals. When I drank regular sodas, I was ingesting tons and tons of sugar. Check out this picture of how much sugar is in soda. Yikes! Then, when I transitioned to diet sodas, I was drinking all sorts of dreadful chemicals that were supposed to trick me into thinking I was getting sugar. Have you seen the research showing that artificial sweeteners make you gain weight? I won’t even go on and on about all the caffeine I was drinking. Wow, talk about drugging myself with that stuff. Geez, louise.
- Water is really inexpensive from the tap and easy to find pretty much anywhere for free! When I see my friends paying $2 or more just to drink sodas or tea when we go places, I can hardly believe it! Maybe it’s just the cheapskate in me, but I really prefer saving that cash. Even when I drank sodas, sometimes I would bring my own or just drink them at home because I knew I could drink a day or two’s worth of soda for the cost of one at Chili’s or Denny’s or wherever I happened to be.
- It goes well with everything at any time. I used to get some really weird looks drinking a soda with breakfast. Water is refreshing no matter when you drink it. It doesn’t ruin or alter the taste of your food or other drinks, and it really lets you savor the flavor of your meal or snacks. You also don’t get that gross caramel-colored film on your tongue. Bonus!
- It helps keep my skin clear and my pee clear, too! Water is the best and easiest way to really clear out your system and flush out the stuff you really want to get rid of. It really works to stave away headaches, keep you more alert, help you feel fuller longer, clear up trouble skin and keep it moist and supple, and it conveniently dilutes your pee! If you’re wondering what color pee should be, just check out that site for a color chart. Water makes me feel more energetic than soda ever did. That was something that really surprised me when I started drinking 8+ cups a day!
- My tooth enamel is not stained or damaged when I drink it. The acidity, carbonation, and sweeteners found in sodas all do a number on our teeth. I know that my teeth have been stained by them. Not only that, but when I drank sodas, I had a lot of tooth sensitivity, particularly with cold foods and drinks. I remember hearing about a study that said not to brush teeth too soon after drinking soda because it softens the enamel right away. Yuck! There are scientific reasons to avoid soda for your oral health. I have noticed less pain and less staining since I gave them up.