I am unreasonable with what I drink...

[Blondequeenie]

For the past few weeks, I have been pretty un-well, always have a very sore headache, around the eye and the nose and this is also impacted with my endometriosis.

My husband tells me that I am not helping myself by drinking so much sprite, Fanta or coke-zero per day. I used to drink Coke Zero but switched to sprite because of the no caffeine but my husband thinks I should not drink any of these drinks unless I am out for dinner. I need to be honest and say I consume around 2 litres per day of sprite, very little water apart from at night and I do not drink alcohol.

Could my husband have a point?

He says I should drink only water but that seems crazy to me as I always have a sprite with my dinner or lunch. What do you all drink?

Wow that’s a lot of fizz! (And calories). 1 bottle of pop will last us around a week- that’s me and two teen boys, and that’s if I buy it. However we are bad for bottled water (none of us like the taste of our tap water) and I buy 5-8 crates of 12 bottles per week. We all drink at least 2.5 litres of water a day- so 5 bottles but sometimes more. If I really want something sweet I will add a little Vimto to the bottle, but again a 1 litre bottle lasts over a month, so it’s not a daily thing.

I was also going to suggest a soda stream for fizzy water, it's helped me to cut down my diet coke intake (which I feel better about now having read this thread, lol). I have 2 - 3 cans a day but if I have a bottle of sparkling water in the fridge then I will be more likely to go for that instead.

That's a huge quantity of acid to consume - it will effect your teeth and your gut. Try and drink things with a more neutral pH - water, spring water, tea, avoid juice and fizzy.

I would imagine it would be impacting on your weight, yes. Not only your weight but I would imagine your teeth will be being affected too. My daughter used to compete at County level, once or twice she attended Olympic talent days in her sport, the coaches there were always very anti any fizzy drinks as they were bad for health and have next to no nutritional value.

I would fart like a shetland pony on that much fizz.
You must feel so bloated?

I'll make you feel better, I drink tea and coffee (the milky calorific coffee shop stuff) about 5 cups a day, u lady 3 cans of diet coke and squash with fizzy water.

I do drink water with vitamin tabs at work.

Oh and then I drink wine!

DIL`s drink diet coke so thought what is the harm. Two cans a day. Well my urine went a funny colour, stomach cramps and wind, so after two days I went back to two teas, two coffees a day plus lots of water. Problem solved.

If you suffer from cluster headaches or migraines, sugar and artificial sweeteners will make them worse. I thought this straight away. But OP, I see you often drink full fat too. If you're going to go cold turkey you'll need to push through the first week or so, I'd bet you would have awful sugar withdrawal. You'll thank yourself in a month or so though

That’s plain sugar addiction and extremely bad for your health.

@Sockworkshop

You are right, I am always on a daily basis bloated! I look like I am pregnant after a meal.

Blondequeenie For the past few weeks, I have been pretty un-well, always have a very sore headache, around the eye and the nose and this is also impacted with my endometriosis

That may well be allergies, I am on piriton again, the tree pollen gets me from March onwards. Beware the anti histamine drugs take a while to kick in. Try them daily for a couple of weeks.

Woah that's a lot of crap. Even the low sugar ones like coke zero aren't great for you. That's a tonne of caffeine and artifical sweeteners are known for headaches. Stick to the gin.

Good luck OP. I think once you’re through the worst of the withdrawals you’ll notice it actually helps your endometriosis.

Honestly, that sounds like allergies, and there is no reason to suppose consumption of fizzy drinks is linked to your non-tolerance of pollen. The MN diet police are out in force today.
I personally wouldn't drink that much full sugar fizzy drink because of the calories, and I wouldn't drink diet because I think it tastes like sh!t. But that's my opinion, and my habit of drinking several mugs of black coffee isn't any more virtuous because it's hot!

I drink two cans of Coke Zero per day and feel guilty / excessive about that!

Maybe just keep the fizzy drinks for meal times and have lemon squash or something in between? (I hate plain water)...

Sugar (just like most processed carbs) is inflammatory so in general is not good for your overall physical health. Many can reduce lots of physical ailments (e.g. joint pain, IBS symptoms etc etc) by reducing their sugar/ carb intake. they are best eaten as/with fiber.

Artificial sweeteners are also thought to also cause inflammation for the simple reason that they are artificial. The body does not recognise then and so it triggers an immune response = inflammation.

It could be the above, or it could simply be sugar addiction and the headache is you needing your next 'fix' every time your blood sugar drops.

Either way (and for lots of the reasons above) best gone.

Regarding weight loss.

Eating sugar releases insulin which is your fat storage hormone. while your body is full of sugar (for 8 hours or so after consuming large quantities of sugar) your body will be desperately producing fat to get rid of the sugar in your blood. While it is doing that, you won't be able to lose any weight. If you are regularly drinking this stuff then its hardy surprising that you struggle to lose weight.

A warning about giving up, you may experience withdrawal symptoms 2-5 days after reducing your sugar intake. this may look like...

Headache
dizzyness
nausea
sugar cravings

This should only last a short while though just keep going!

There are 840 calories in a 2L of sprite.

There are 3500 calories in a pound.

You're essentially drinking an extra pound every four days. That's about a stone every two months.

I drink roughly the same amount of various fizzy drinks each day - I buy crates of them wholesale and every time I go to the drinks fridge I find myself picking up a can.

It's definitely not the best thing in the world for you, but it isn't the worst either.
At least you're getting fluid into your body. If I restricted myself to just water I wouldn't drink nearly enough.

Due to chronic condition, I have a 6 monthly MOT and according to those my body is fine.

The headaches could be down to fizzy drinks but there's also a range of other things that could be causing them - might be worth a GP visit to investigate.
I can't comment on the weight aspect because I'm actually underweight myself.

Don't be hard on yourself for drinking sugary drinks. There's much worse you could be putting in your system.

Surely this isn't real? Surely nobody 1) drinks TWO LITRES of sugary crap per day and 2) has to ask if it's normal/okay?

Surely this isn't real? Surely nobody 1) drinks TWO LITRES of sugary crap per day and 2) has to ask if it's normal/okay?

Yep 840 calories per day in drinks. I bet if you stopped it you'd lose 1-2lbs a week.

OP I used to drink over a litre and a half of full fat coke every day, from when I was a young teen to when I was about 20, so probably close on 10 years really, and one day I just woke up and realised how bad this was for me and had to just quit cold turkey, it's been about 3 years now since I've had any and I never crave it. I mostly just drink water now, or I'll have a juice or tea very occasionally. When I first quit I was drinking a loooot of water every day just so i didn't have the excuse of being thirsty to go and get myself a coke. You can do it!!

I work with public health researchers trying to tackle to obesity epidemic in Mexico City, and the main thing they target is soda/fizzy drinks. It's apparently the number one cause of obesity there. It sounds like your husband might be a great resource for you though, as he knows you and the science!

More possible alternatives if you don't like the taste of water or hot drinks: fizzy water from a soda stream with the juice of half a freshly squeezed lemon and lots of ice. It's delicious!

If I have too much sugar I get very fuzzy headed and headachy. I had a piece of cake Monday evening and regretted it all Tuesday.

I used to drink about 8 cups of strong (2 heaped tsp of instant) a day, and have managed to cut it down to one (two at the most) with a decaff or two. What I do drink is water, by the pint. I hardly drank anything as a child/teen, and know I can't get enough of the stuff. I've had squash in it maybe once this last year (when I was babysitting and they had some) and I occassionally have the cold water tea-bags, but I really just prefer it plain. And I wouldn't bother with bottled water, tap is fine in this country.

@yma123

Thank you for your honest response, when you cut it out did you lose weight, how did it impact your body shape etc?

@EllaEllaE

Thank you, you may be onto something there! I just need to try and take it a day at a time.