Altenatives to tea, coffee or fizzy drinks?

countrymusicfan

My specialist told me not to drink tea, coffee or fizzy drinks. I am a very thirsty diabetic. I can't think of anything else that you could drink apart from milk (fattening), or water(boring). Any other suggestions please while I am still sane from caffeine withdraw?:D

cte1111

Herbal teas - I think peppermint and camomile are OK (not keen on fruit teas myself as think they smell lovely but taste of nothing)

Diluted fruit juice

Try chilling small bottles of tap water in the fridge to make them more interesting

Sugar free squash, ribena or vimto

Hot vimto

Bovril?

slowandsteady_2

Sugar free flavoured water?

ivyleaf

I'm surprised to hear this - my husband was diagnosed with Type 2 last year and he's never been told not to drink tea, coffee or fizzy drinks - though he is meant to keep to the diet fizzy drinks. It's worth trying different herbal teas, perhaps peppermint? I like nettle tea, it sounds very unappetising but has a lovely "clean" taste. Well, I think so, anyway

If it's the caffeine the specialist wants you to avoid, I haven't tried it myself yet but I believe Redbush tea tastes fairly similar to "ordinary" tea.

Once you start to get your blood sugar down a bit you won't be so thirsty.

Crisp_£_note

Make a cup of black tea and add a slice of lemon leave to cool, (can be bottled in small amounts once cooled to take away), alternatively hot water and add lemon juice), hot water with mint leaves. Hot chocolate. No added sugar squashes with warm water, fruit smoothies made with fruit juice or water not milk, alternative method in summer is to freeze pop them or have them as refreshers in ice cube trays for hot days.
Have you tried fizzy bottled water / spring water added to no added sugar squash or fruit juice for an alternative to fizzy pop drinks? Freeze home made lolipops on sticks and chunks of fruit on kebab skewers (cut off the spikey ends so as to get rid of the sharp points then run fruit under the cold tap before freezing flat) another twist to this is a few cubes of sugar free jelly with fizzy water (mix well until completely dissolved) and fruit pieces, freeze in a disposable cup with a stick inserted makes lovely fruity fizzy pops.

Just a few suggestions that work for me!

Thanks

v8monkeyboy

I gave up drinking coffe years ago and 'normal' tea at the beginning if this year.

I tend to drink organic cordial and if I want a hot drink, I drink Tick Tock tea - I drink it without milk and sugar, and I can honestly say it's one of the nicest warm drinks I've ever had.

I too find a lot of the fruit teas very bitter, but thre are some Twinings ones with vanilla that aren't too bad.

HTH,

Tracy x

Gers

Green tea - on it's own or any of the flavoured ones. I stopped tea/coffee recently and now have no yearning for them. In true MSE style I liberate one or two teabags from the hotels I stay in regularly for work, leave the biscuits and other stuff.

Camomile tea - not to my personal taste but each to their own.

Paulie'sGirl

Skimmed milk?
Diluted fruit juices (I dilute orange juice half and half with water)
Tesco's fruit teas are almost as good as Twinnings, and often on offer. Their red berries one is particularly nice.

I went through a phase of drinking "canarino" non-stop. Peel a strip of lemon zest, pour boiling water over. A very subtle and refreshing drink hot or cold.

PGxx

lickylonglips

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

Skimmed milk?
Diluted fruit juices (I dilute orange juice half and half with water)
Tesco's fruit teas are almost as good as Twinnings, and often on offer. Their red berries one is particularly nice.

I went through a phase of drinking "canarino" non-stop. Peel a strip of lemon zest, pour boiling water over. A very subtle and refreshing drink hot or cold.

PGxx

fruit juices, even diluted, are to be avoided by diabetics due to their very high sugar content. even diluted half and half, it would be far too much sugar for someone who is type 2 diabetic to be having if they're being sensible.

with regards milk, even skimmed milk is high in sugar (lactose), which again isn't suitable in large quantities for diabetics.

i stick to diet drinks (although again we're supposed to keep an eye on caffeine intake) and tea with a little milk....

try decaffeinated tea and coffee maybe?

BitterAndTwisted

cte1111 wrote: »

Herbal teas - I think peppermint and camomile are OK (not keen on fruit teas myself as think they smell lovely but taste of nothing)

Totally agree about the fruit teas BUT the one I have found which really does have a lovely flavour is rose-hip tea. I'm hooked on it now. Totally delicious.

One of our special "treats" when we were nippers and feeling unwell was hot orange squash, so a sugar-free version might be pleasant

Fire_Fox

Homemade lemonade (with sweetener) or sugar free real lemon squash. Apparently lemon juice reduces the glycaemic index of foods and thus lowers blood sugar.