Shifting to H20

[Jonluw]

Speaking as someone who doesn't eat or drink a lot of sugar anymore, and by extension don't suffer from wild swings in blood sugar that go with it, I can safely say that the sort of fluctuations in energy level that you're referring to as normal here are really anything but. When you cut out the food and drinks high in sugar, energy levels stay pretty constant throughout the day. Which is one of the nicer benefits of cutting out sugar actually.

Well, that and not getting diabetes, but I digress.

I don't think the fluctuation I'm referring to as normal is as great as you think I'm saying.
I normally don't eat sugary stuff at all on weekdays. The only pure sugar in my diet on a weekday is the two or three teaspoons I mix in my breakfast, which otherwise consists entirely of a bowl filled with rolled oats and milk.
I still notice that I can easily get a bit tired and irate by the end of a day at school.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I tend to drink diet soda, only getting the full blooded stuff if I'm at a restaurant or otherwise out of the house. Then again, I also drink plenty of water, tending to keep the sodas confined to meals...

The diet shit is just as bad for you, unless you ONLY care about sugar intake.

OT: I drink water, orange juice, and smoothies. (Unless I'm drinking drinking, obviously.)

If gaming is an interest and a hobby then you can't afford to eat and drink complete shit.

Well that's just it: the sugar is the only thing you really need to worry about, unless you're actually drinking so much that the ascorbic acid, salt, or caffeine are a problem. And if you're drinking that much, first of all I envy the fact that you have room to store that many 2 liters, but second, you need to cut down anyway -- especially because very few sodas have enough caffeine to worry about, and some (such as most lemon lime sodas and root beers) don't have any at all. Heck, lemonade is worse for your teeth than coke, and it's probably got more salt in it to boot.

Edit: Oh, and you drink a lot of orange juice? Dude, look up the caloric content the next time you pour yourself a glass. Juice has more calories than soda, and orange juice, like lemonade, is loaded up with citric acid, so it's not exactly good for your teeth, either. It's got more vitamins, but other than that, it's actually /worse/ for you than most types of soda. The smoothies probably aren't much better, unless you have some source of sugar free, fruit free, flavor free smoothies that I've never heard of before.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Hm. I typically go through a two-litre of Diet Pepsi in, uh, four days or so. That's about two glasses of soda a day. The rest of the time, it's coffee and water. The local nurse and dietitian (the maternal unit) still thinks I drink too much of the stuff, but I try to compensate by switching to water in the couple last hours that precede my going to bed and during my sleeping hours.

Personally, though, I've always favored sugary tastes and oddly enough, I tend to operate better on things that have high glucose contents instead of a high yield of proteins. Nuts and meat slow me down to the point where my energy levels drop (digestion, I'd assume), whereas I can keep going at a nice clip with a bowl of pasta.

Not that I'm in particularly good shape, though. I'm at least ten pounds above my optimal weight, if not twenty. I'm trying to cut back on my food servings (which were normal in size but a little boosted thanks to my lack of leafy greens) by actually adding salad to the mix.

I do treadmill runs every day, but all it really seems to do is improve my gait and overall lower-body muscle tone. I've actually gained a little weight since beginning a semi-regular training regimen.

 

[LetalisK]

Wait Canadians use pop to mean soda? I thought only us Brits did that?

OT: I try but it usually goes tits up and I 'relapse'.

Everyone I know uses pop as well. It might be a "middle of the US" thing.

 

[Mr_Universal]

tap water all the way

 

[LetalisK]

I tend to drink diet soda, only getting the full blooded stuff if I'm at a restaurant or otherwise out of the house. Then again, I also drink plenty of water, tending to keep the sodas confined to meals...

The diet shit is just as bad for you, unless you ONLY care about sugar intake.

OT: I drink water, orange juice, and smoothies. (Unless I'm drinking drinking, obviously.)

If gaming is an interest and a hobby then you can't afford to eat and drink complete shit.

Well that's just it: the sugar is the only thing you really need to worry about, unless you're actually drinking so much that the ascorbic acid, salt, or caffeine are a problem. And if you're drinking that much, first of all I envy the fact that you have room to store that many 2 liters, but second, you need to cut down anyway -- especially because very few sodas have enough caffeine to worry about, and some (such as most lemon lime sodas and root beers) don't have any at all. Heck, lemonade is worse for your teeth than coke, and it's probably got more salt in it to boot.

Edit: Oh, and you drink a lot of orange juice? Dude, look up the caloric content the next time you pour yourself a glass. Juice has more calories than soda, and orange juice, like lemonade, is loaded up with citric acid, so it's not exactly good for your teeth, either. It's got more vitamins, but other than that, it's actually /worse/ for you than most types of soda. The smoothies probably aren't much better, unless you have some source of sugar free, fruit free, flavor free smoothies that I've never heard of before.

Don't forget the sports drinks like Gatorade and Vitaminwater. Unless you're actually playing a sport at the moment, those are just as bad. Marketing companies have done a great job scamming people to think it's fine to just drink them in place of pop.

edit: tried to do two different tags at once, doh

 

[Mischlings]

Caffeine.. overall, not that bad for you. Not great by any stretch of the imagination but it does have some overall redeeming qualities. Caffeine, the stimulant that it is, causes stimulation to the areas of your brain condusive to concentration, and keeps it nice and excercised. Read a few articles that claim that this kind of stimulation (also triggered by nicotine) can greatly lower the risk of degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimers. I don't know if there has been follow up studies to prove or disprove these claims though.

Not great for your heart though. Either of them lol

Caffeine can be used for treating some things such as migraine headaches, and some spinal problems are treated with a caffeine IV, but you missed the point of the post that I was making (probably my fault).

These people were telling me I drank too much caffeine, while they stood in front of me drinking something with even more caffeine in it. The hypocrisy drove me crazy.

 

[RatRace123]

I cut down on Soda as part of my diet.
I gotta say, I'm pretty sure that was the most effective step. All that sugar, really adds up around the gut after a while.

Turns out though, without soda I drink a lot of water. I go through about 4 bottles a day, on average.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Are people really STILL drinking tons of soda, and debating the merits of drinking primarily water, as if it were open to question?

Stop drinking soda. While you're at it, lay off caffeine, too. Seriously.

It's all fun and games to talk about crashes and how tasty soda is, but one day your health is going to EXPLODE from all the crap you are putting in your body, and at that point it's going to be too late to take it all back, and mark my words you are going to wish you could.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Wait Canadians use pop to mean soda? I thought only us Brits did that?

OT: I try but it usually goes tits up and I 'relapse'.

Everyone I know uses pop as well. It might be a "middle of the US" thing.

The US has quite a few regional variations on the term. There's pop, soda, soda pop, coke[footnote]seriously, in the south you don't usually say "do you want to get a soda?" it's "do you want to get a coke?", although "soda" is the preferred term when talking about different brands and flavors; it's kind of a complicated social rule, one that's hard to describe in text.[/footnote], and I want to say even a few weird ones, like "fizz." People tend to forget just how big this country is. The entirety of Europe could fit inside the borders with room to spare, so it's not exactly surprising that we have regional variations like that.

 

[WWmelb]

Caffeine.. overall, not that bad for you. Not great by any stretch of the imagination but it does have some overall redeeming qualities. Caffeine, the stimulant that it is, causes stimulation to the areas of your brain condusive to concentration, and keeps it nice and excercised. Read a few articles that claim that this kind of stimulation (also triggered by nicotine) can greatly lower the risk of degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimers. I don't know if there has been follow up studies to prove or disprove these claims though.

Not great for your heart though. Either of them lol

Caffeine can be used for treating some things such as migraine headaches, and some spinal problems are treated with a caffeine IV, but you missed the point of the post that I was making (probably my fault).

These people were telling me I drank too much caffeine, while they stood in front of me drinking something with even more caffeine in it. The hypocrisy drove me crazy.

No no no i got your point, just been a long day and didn't think to acknowledge that fact lol.. it's been a long day and tangents when tired oooh a bug! Where's my wallet.... ... ...

 

[Mischlings]

The US has quite a few regional variations on the term. There's pop, soda, soda pop, coke, and I want to say even a few weird ones, like "fizz." People tend to forget just how big this country is. The entirety of Europe could fit inside the borders with room to spare, so it's not exactly surprising that we have regional variations like that.

It's kind of funny all the differences you can find -- I grew up in Michigan saying "pop", my girlfriend grew up in Florida saying "soda" (and we argue about it all the time), and she currently lives in Georgia where "Coke" is the standard.

Are people really STILL drinking tons of soda, and debating the merits of drinking primarily water, as if it were open to question?

Stop drinking soda. While you're at it, lay off caffeine, too. Seriously.

It's all fun and games to talk about crashes and how tasty soda is, but one day your health is going to EXPLODE from all the crap you are putting in your body, and at that point it's going to be too late to take it all back, and mark my words you are going to wish you could.

It seems like this is more about people trying to cut down than debating the merits. I think we all know pop isn't really good for you, we're just talking about how much we do drink and how to cut down on it.

 

[StormShaun]

...Crap

I really, really need to drink more water and to drink less soda, well I doubt that is going to happen.

I just have to hope that someday I will get used to drinking more water since I am biking more often lately and take a water bottle with me.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

My pleasure.
Also:
H[sub]3[/sub]O[sup]+[/sup]

Turns out my guess as to how to superscript was spot on. Nice. Thanks anyway!

 

[Jonluw]

My pleasure.
Also:
H[sub]3[/sub]O[sup]+[/sup]

Turns out my guess as to how to superscript was spot on. Nice. Thanks anyway!

Yeah, I guess superscript is pretty intuitive.
For future reference, I leave you with this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.108989-Guide-to-Forum-Typing-Tricks-UPDATED-4-24-09] guide to the bb-code, young padawan.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

What do you mean by "having another crash"?

Drink a lot of pop. Have energy for half an hour and then the next two hours I feel exhausted.

How much pop are we talking here?

I was sharing with my sister but I ended up drinking about 80% of a 2 liter bottle alone seeing as she hardly has any.

I'm the same way in the amount, but not necessarily in the timeframe. I typically space out that 80% between 1 or 2 days. That being said, I drink almost nothing but soda. I'm probably setting myself up for some serious diabetes in a few years, so I've decided to slowly cut back starting last week.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

My pleasure.
Also:
H[sub]3[/sub]O[sup]+[/sup]

Turns out my guess as to how to superscript was spot on. Nice. Thanks anyway!

Yeah, I guess superscript is pretty intuitive.
For future reference, I leave you with this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.108989-Guide-to-Forum-Typing-Tricks-UPDATED-4-24-09] guide to the bb-code, young padawan.

Thank you Master Jonluw. I will use this power wisely.

 

[StrixMaxima]

I stopped drinking carbonated beverages this year, since I love them, they are my only addiction, and they make me burp funny noises.

I think that shifting directly towards pure water is too dramatic and makes the transition quite grueling. My solution was to mix 3/4 of a glass of fizzy water, and 1/4 of natural fruit juice (from my experience, lemon, apple, passion fruit and grapes produce the best end results). With some ice, the end result is very tasty, fizzy and has very little sugar.

It is very satisfying, and the crave for carbonated goodness is adequately sated. Give it a shot.

 

[Cpu46]

yea, I tend to stick to milk, juice, and water for most meals, sometimes I drink a Mountain Dew but not every day. A 12 pack of that generally lasts me a good month or two. I also drink Diet 7up with whiskey. Damn good drink.

 

[Yopaz]

I haven't been drinking soda regularly for about 5 years now. I drink mostly coffee and water. Coffee because it's good and water because it's free and tastes pretty good too. I would drink juice, but that's too expensive.