What to drink??

[htbftm]

Hi all, I'm confused about what to drink!! I normally drink black tea with sweetener (saccharin based) and diet coke.
Now I'm FTC, I ditched my sweetener and diet pop for fear it could lead to birth defects and went to white tea and sugar and full fat pop...
However after further reading, it appears caffeine is a bigger no no than my sweetener, which is in both drinks!
I want to be good, but realistic lol - what am I best to drink??

Water, you'll get used to it.

Something without sugar. Not just when TTC but all the time!! If all you're drinking is sugary tea and pop your teeth will be destroyed, your insulin levels will be going crazy and you'll be putting on unnecessary weight. Fruit juice will have the same effect: it's full of sugar.

If you're bored with water try a sodastream: you can add fizz and a bit of juice.

Personally, I'm not too worried about sweeteners, but in moderation: one can a day, for example, not in every drink you have.

Sparkling flavoured water. I live on it. Sugar free and caffeine free. And it's cheap. :)

There is no problem with caffeine, drink your tea.

I would maybe cut back a bit but try not to worry. When pg you can have some caffeine after all. Personally I drink lots of diluted lime cordial.

akachan - that's not true.

There is a problem with caffeine in large amounts: there are studies linking it to increased miscarriage risk. But it's quite a lot, even for coffee drinkers, and you'd have to drink a lot of tea to get to that level.

Akachan, research shows a clear link between high levels of caffeine and miscarriage rates. But low - moderate amounts should be fine.

I think those studies are out of date. A recent study showed similar miscarriage rates in women who drank decaf coffee to caffienated (both showing higher rates than non coffee drinkers). The thinking is that sickness puts you off drinking large amounts of coffee (caffeinated or otherwise) and sickness means lower miscarriage risk. So it's a correlation not a cause.

But caffeine doesn't just come from coffee. Chocolate, green tea, regular tea, soda etc all contain caffeine.

Yes, no evidence that caffeine in anything is harmful in pregnancy.

www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(07)02025-X/abstract

This study found that nausea or vomiting did not affect the result.

Tea is fine, but do without sugar if you drink a lot, and plenty of water.
I like soda water with fresh lemon/lime.

I'll read that with interest thanks.

Although just noticed that that study is 7 years old. I'll dig out the one I was talking about - I am pretty sure it's much more recent.

I just got a copy of Expecting Better for Christmas. Not read it yet but looks interesting and suggests current guidance on most things is very over cautious.

That's where I got my caffeine comment from! I love that book.

Diet coke etc is fine in moderation you can have something silly like five cans a day so I really wouldn't worry. Obviously its big healthy but big dangerous.

Big??? I meant not

Thanks everyone - no wonder I was confused lol! The one I read suggested 2 cups of tea or coffee a day as a limit when pregnant, which I thought was quite harsh! Think I'm gonna try and mix it up a bit, so I'm not drinking 'too' much of anything!!