Kicking a redbull addiction

brook2jack

ingredients "healthy" water with a touch of lemon and lime
Ingredients:
Volvic Natural Mineral Water (99.6%), Acid (Citric Acid), Lemon & Lime Natural Flavours, Preservative (Potassium Benzoate), Sweeteners (Sucralose, Acesulfame K).

ingredients "unhealthy" fizzy drink
Carbonated water, lemon juice from concentrate (2%), citric acid, flavourings, acidity regulator (E331), sweeteners (aspartame, sodium saccharin), preservative (E202), antioxidant (ascorbic acid).


Flavoured waters are a con to make you think they are a healthy choice. Coke, red bull are after all flavoured waters.

All of these things are fine as a treat but not as a staple of your diet.Consumption of fizz of all sorts has rocketed in recent years along with consumption of fruit juices and in many cases fruit juice is just as sugary as coke.

If you are serious about health choices keep the fizz,juice as a treat .

skintandscared_2

Yes, I was already aware of the additives in flavoured water as my sister is allergic to benzoates and that lemon & lime water brings her out in a horrible rash. I'm struggling to think what the best thing to drink would be! Fizzy water just tastes like alker seltzer to me.... I think I will try and find a fruit squash that has the least amount of additives in it. Fresh lemon in water is probably best of all but realistically I couldn't stick to something that is that much fuss.

ktb

To give an example of the sort of the fizzy water I was talking about:

http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Feel-Good-Drinks-White-Grape--Peach-Sparkling-Juice-Drink/45421011

Ingredients;

60% Fruit Juice (from Concentrate): Grape 53%, Lime, Lemon, Acerola, Peach 1%, Apricot, Gently Sparkling Water & Fruit Extracts: Natural Flavours

Dietary Information

No Added Sugar

I agree with brook2jack that fizzy drinks and fruit juices should be avoided where possible & this one still has lots of fruit juice in it - so they are still terrible for your teeth, no argument there at all!

But I have seen first hand that when re-adjusting your palate after an addiction to strongly flavoured and sweetened fizzy drinks like red bull and coke, it can help to wean onto things that are still fizzy and flavoured, but without quite so many chemical nasties. Hopefully then you can move towards just drinking more plain, old water.... but the cold turkey route can be a bit much for some & it can be good to have a go-to back up drink that isn't red bull or the like!

Personally I think squash is addictive and pretty evil, chemical nastiness. Whether it is better or worse overall that the fizzy waters I don't know... but you will struggle to find one without either refined sugar or a chemical sweetener I think...

brook2jack

fresh lemon in water is very very acid and will dissolve teeth like chalk.

brook2jack

The drink above doesn't need added sugar as the juice made up to the equivalent volume of a can contains 6 spoons of sugar. Because the juice content is made from concentrate ie dried then reconstituted , it has virtually no vitamins or nutritional value over sugar syrup.

Mands

skintandscared wrote: »

I'm struggling to think what the best thing to drink would be! Fizzy water just tastes like alker seltzer to me.... I think I will try and find a fruit squash that has the least amount of additives in it. Fresh lemon in water is probably best of all but realistically I couldn't stick to something that is that much fuss.

Weak fruit squash made up with sparkling water? Is that still alka selter-ish?

Fruit or herbal teas? Yes, I know, they come in pretty boxes but many of them taste like floor sweeping. I think that, like princes, you have to kiss a fair few frogs to find one that's palatable but some are.

Mands

brook2jack

fruit and herbal teas (apart from chamomile) are both very acidic (more than orange juice) and contain alot of sugar and will decay/erode teeth easily. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2995209.stm

I know everything I post about substitutes is very negative ,but the problem is op is excessive in their consumption of red bull. If they replace it with excessive consumption of something else then most choices other than water, milk, green or black tea, also have health implications. None of these drinks are a problem in moderation, but then the occasional red bull for most people wouldn't be a problem.

ktb

i'm not suggesting it is making up part of the OPs 5 a day fgs!! I also didn't realise the challenge was to find a drink that had nutrional value AND preserves teeth... (although I would be intrigued to know, seeing as the OP has said plain water is a no, what that might look like?)... I thought it was just about reducing Red Bull intake, which I think we can all agree is a great goal!?

I am just saying that when your are used to the mouth feel etc of coke and red bull that fizzy water can help, whilst hopefully on the path to drinking more plain water.

Good luck OP!

Mands

brook2jack wrote: »

fruit and herbal teas (apart from chamomile) are both very acidic (more than orange juice) and contain alot of sugar and will decay/erode teeth easily. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2995209.stm

I know everything I post about substitutes is very negative

I'm reading concern rather than negativity :-)

But, I'm astounded that *some* herbal teas can be as acidic as orange juice. That has a pH of about 2.8. A quick search online isn't clear; it looks like most websites that comment have some sort of agenda. What is clear though is that the citrus teas are the ones of concern in terms of acidity.

So, I'll happily amend my earlier suggestion and say herbal teas rather than fruit teas. They'll probably still taste like floor sweepings though :-)

Mands

brook2jack

Op excessively drinks red bull. The problem is if op replaces excessive consumption of red bull with something else that is not water, milk , green or black tea, then they are not making a healthy choice they are swapping one kind of health problem for another. Which is great ,if as you say, the goal is to gradually wean off excessive consumption of sugared,fizzy , caffeinated etc drinks.

However using most of the above suggestions as a "healthy" long term substitute will create their own health problems. They are best regarded as short term steps to a healthier consumption pattern.