I Used To Drink 20 Cans Of Fizzy Drinks A Day And Now I Have Heart Disease

[NellieGirl]

I used to drink 20 cans of fizzy drinks a day, mostly coke and irn bru.

A month ago, I was diagnosed with heart disease and I got told I needed to stop drinking fizzy drinks completely or I would be at risk of a heart attack.

I am allowed to drink all other drinks that are not fizzy. I don't like milk, and water is boring and so is fruit juice. It's not only boring, I'm also sad that I'm not allowed to drink fizzy drinks anymore, not even occasionally. I feel sad pretty much all the time.

It is making me never want to go to parties or go out for dinner. Me, my dh, and my two dc used to watch films on Friday night and Saturday night, and even watching films is boring when I can't drink fizzy drinks.

Is anyone in a similar situation? Or does anyone know anything I can do to get over it?

How the fuck did your bladder cope with 20 a day?

so can you have the lower sugar fizzy drinks occasionally? Fever Tree fizzies have much less sugar in than the cans. I can't tolerate any of the artificial sweeteners so the Fever Tree drinks have been a sanity saver.

Your post detailing the fizzy drinking habits of your various family members and the way you talk about it suggests you have a really unhealthy fixation on this

Really?? There’s lots of parties going on in your family 🤔 And lots of people banned from fizzy drinks 🤔

The point is to clarify what the issue is. If it's aspartame, as it appears to be, then she needs to cut out aspartame rather than "fizzy drinks". Chances are the doctor has said "no fizzy drink", if they have, because the vast majority do have some and they don't really want to rely on the OP to sift through and only drink the ones that don't, given her extraordinarily unusual consumption of same.

A heart attack isn't something I'd be worrying about with an aortic aneurysm. You've got more chance of surviving a heart attack.

Sparkling water with cordial z

I think aspartame in large quantities can mess with your brain chemistry which could explain why you are feeling depressed, OP. You were drinking a massive amount of fizzy drinks so it's no surprise that the habit is hard to kick.

I would try to be gentle with yourself and rest lots while your body gets used to the change. Try to nourish yourself with healthy foods, gentle exercise, and drink replacement drinks - they may not help with he aspartame cravings but could help replace the physical habit of treating yourself to a drink. Other options for no-aspartame fizzy drinks could be sparkling water (I love San Pellegrino), Appetiser, fresh fruit juice mixed with sparkling water.

You said you drank the full sugar fizzy drinks. They don’t have aspartame in. It’s the diet drinks that have that

Quite frankly - grow up! Who needs these drinks? You don’t.

Last year due to kidney stones (worst pain I haver ever been in) I gave up drinking pretty much everything bar water. First thing I have lemon juice in it but after that it is just water. I just looked at it as medicine at first, and made myself drink some water every hour. then after quite a short time, maybe a couple of weeks, my body started to ask for water and it was no longer something I made myself do. I dropped excess weight and started to feel better than I had for a long time. A year on I do have the occasional cup of tea or coffee but on the whole I am happier drinking good old tap water. Think of it as treatment with no side effects. It's a big life change for you - be kind to yourself.

Green Tea

Have fun and best of luck

Good point !

I thought that too

Basically this.

It’s a shame someone didn’t think to point it out before how obviously unhealthy it was to drink fizzy juice in such quantities. I don’t but I know people who consume soft drink and they don’t have as much as that. This is very unusual.

20 cans is like 6L right?

Were you on the toilet 24/7?!

I'm always amazed by how much liquid mumsnetters drink-although I think even by most standards 20 cans is very excessive! I would not physically be able to drink even half that much I don't think. Not even exaggerating but you drank more liquid in a day than I sometimes drink in a week...I did have to give up pepsi max but I was only having 1-2 cans a day, even so my dentist would always ask me about it and tell me to cut way down. So I just gave it up, I miss it but it's really awful stuff.

Exactly. I feel parents weren’t as aware in the 80s/90s but I’d expect parents of the current teen generation to know better. It sounds like they’re drinking multiple cans daily although not as much as you.

Might be worth asking your doctor about Appletise. Its just fruit juice, carbonated. No additives.

This thread is utterly bizarre. So much of what you're saying makes no sense at all. Aspartame is a sugar substitute. It isn't in the full sugar drinks that you say you always drank.

It's like you've made a bet to see how many times you could use the words 'fizzy drinks' in one thread. You've even used it four times in one sentence. Is fizzy drinks code for something?

There’s 24 hours in a day yes, but most people sleep for some of that time 😅

Though with ciggies my grandparents used to smoke in bed (vom) so they’d literally smoke every waking hour! Addiction is a real disease.

You are addicted, and you need to find your methadone - that is, something tat will not give you the kick, but will alleviate the longing. Anything high sugar sounds like it will not be great, but you could try very diluted cordials, especially ones in flavours you are not used to, eg grenadine, mint - they might distract you, while not being too disappointing, because different from flavours you were having before? Also, can you have caffeine at all or is that out?

Was this a dare to post something ridiculous on Mumsnet hoping that it gets picked up by the media?! It doesn't make sense and there's definitely a fixation on the word "fizzy"!!

I thought the same. I’ve never heard anything like this except in relation to energy drinks. Weird.

What about water with some fruit in it?