Alcohol-free & healthy-ish drink ideas in the pub - overhauling diet and drink

[WhenILookDeepInYourEyesISwearICanSeeYourSoul]

I feel utterly drained all the time - tired, lethargic, no energy, and I'm really sick of it. I've had tests - all normal - I think it's just my diet is bad. I don't drink at home anyway - just when I go out - so it's not a big leap to quit altogether, and I'm currently overhauling my diet to get rid of, or at least reduce as much as possible, ultra-processed foods.

I'm fine with the food part of my overhaul - I've managed to find swaps for everything I like with no issues (apart from Bisto gravy granules - that's going to have to stay!!). But my sticking point is what to drink in pubs. I like water, but for a night out socialising it's really boring. Any ideas please? I'm finding that not many places sell komboucha, or if they do they're flavoured and i like the plain one. I like lime and soda, but the lime cordial used is sugary. I like dry drinks, not sweet.

I'm not being evangelistic about the whole thing - I accept that it can't be perfect with food and I want to keep a healthy mental balance with it all and not obsess - but I socialise a lot and I feel tired and lethargic the next day if I've drank a drink with sugary cordial in it all night for example. And also I just want to give it a proper go for about 6 months and see if an overhauled diet of good nourishing food and alcohol-free make me feel less tired and gives me energy.

Alcohol free beer is my go to- natural ingredients, mostly water, not particularly calorific and crucially not sweet!

I have elderflower cordial and soda. They'll occasionally put mint and slices of lemon and lime depending on where you go.

I have it at home as well. It's not sweet and fairly healthy.

I second @whereswaldo
I also like tonic water on its own.

I tend to drink tonic at the pub if I don't want an alcoholic drink. Plenty of ice, slice of lemon, done.

I always assumed alcohol-free lager would be full of crap, but I just looked up the ingredients and it's actually okay. Who knew!

Thanks for all the ideas - I'll try those. I do like tonic, end it hadn't occurred to me to just buy tonic with a slice of lemon.

Dry Ginger Ale, no sugar version tastes less sweet.
Water- iced with mint, iced with lemon/lime. My fave!
Indian Tonic Water
Iced Tea with lemon or peach juice or apricot juice.
Iced Coffee- double coffee shot on ice, add milk.
Tomato Juice
Elderflower Cordial on ice and water
Strawberry or Blueberry juice on ice with water
Non alcoholic versions of apple cider and beer
Non alcoholic wines - read the reviews for the better ones.

Pure orange juice mixed with tonic water. Get your vitamin C for the tiredness and the tonic water gives it a kick

Ghost Ship 0.5% is actually very nice if you can find it. Officially it is low alcohol, rather than alcohol free, but I suspect that's more to do with labelling regulations.

I wouldn't find a lot of these in our local pub.

Haven’t tried it but a friend mentioned lime soda with a dash of angostura bitters. Or fevertree light tonic ( a lot less sweet and cloying) with a dash of them,
I like the ideas on here, thanks!

I like ginger beer (not ginger ale) and I'd vote for the orange and tonic too. If you don't mind mildly alcoholic a ginger beer shandy is nice. I hate beer but the ginger disguises the taste and the beer takes away some of the sweetness of the ginger beer.
Some pubs don't like to do it because the cloudy ginger beer makes your shandy look like gone-off beer. 😁

I was going to post a whinge about the rubbish choice of non-alcoholic drinks in pubs if you don't like really sweet things. Average pubs just seem to have coke, sprite, bottled orange juice etc. euch! More upmarket pubs might have 'posh' brands of fizzy drinks like Fentimans which are nice. Recently, in one with not much choice, I asked for cranberry juice with soda and ice - that was good when you're thirsty!

I might try a ginger beer shandy, thanks for the idea!