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I can confirm at least one part of this story with a personal anecdote: As a child, I absolutely loved, craved, was addicted to Coca Cola. A liter a day, perha

by deyan 9y ago

I can confirm at least one part of this story with a personal anecdote: As a child, I absolutely loved, craved, was addicted to Coca Cola. A liter a day, perhaps more. Coming to the US, I noticed that it tasted different because of substituting sugar with high fructose corn syrup. No problem - I switched to Mexican Coca Cola (the one in a glass bottle) - and carried on. Fast forward to after grad school, I wanted to get in a better shape, without giving up sweets entirely (I definitely have a sweet tooth). So the first thing I did is to not buy coke. I could still get it if I wanted - the local 7-11 was literally across the street from my place. But it was no longer convenient - I had to get dressed and cross the street, deal with the line, the cashier, pay more for my guilty pleasure, etc. I still went, but definitely less and less frequently. Fast forward a few years and coke started to taste very "heavy" to me. It had this aftertaste that I never noticed before but could no longer shake off. I found myself frequently unable to finish a bottle of coke. My cravings started getting less and less pronounced. This downward (well, upward in terms of health) slope continued and today I no longer crave Coca Cola at all, drinking it perhaps 5 times a year, if that. And even then I can't really do more than a few sips. I look back on this and it honestly feels a bit surreal, knowing that my starting point was (multiple) liters per day and true joy and love for that sugary drink. So progress is definitely possible as long as I took care to make the right choice the easy choice. Don't go hungry to the supermarket. Don't buy things because that makes them easily available, testing your willpower, which is inevitably finite. Make a few basic rules to follow rather than agonize over every small decision and feel guilty afterwards (just like the article said). Simple stuff like that. Some things will stick, others won't, but that's okay. The key is to keep trying to get better and healthier, without losing the small pleasures in life without which, let's be honest, is this even worth it?! Good luck to everyone on their personal journeys.

pascalxus 9y ago
It's awesome that some people can break away from the addiction entirely. But, for me, even if I don't have sugar for months at a time, I still crave it deeply. And when I consume it, it has an extremely profound enjoyable feeling to it. For me, it's not coke or soft drinks, but rather sweet drinks like horchata and milk tea (not the real one), syrupy stuff, donuts, etc. I apply moderation.
- deyan 9y ago
  To be fair and transparent, I have been completely unable to get rid of sweets - chocolates, brownies, cookies. I have made progress, but nowhere near where I need to be. Then again, life is short, we have to have our little pleasures. Nobody is gonna live forever anyway..
jackhack 9y ago
>Coca Cola. A liter a day... I am stunned. 1L of Coca Cola = 840 calories @ 234grams of sugar. That's 18 Tablespoons. Or a bit more than one measuring cup of sugar per day in addition to whatever else you ate! 1/3 of an adult's typical days caloric needs consumed as pure sugar. Since you were a child, it's likely you were consuming more than half your daily calories this way.
- ericmcer 9y ago
  The human body is amazingly adaptive though. My old roommates friend would come over frequently and every time he would get a cup from the kitchen, fill it 1/3rd with water, add one of those flavoring crystal packets, and then fill the rest with vodka out of a plastic bottle. No one else would even be drinking. He would drink 2-3 of those cups and seem pretty much unfazed, eat nothing, and go home hours later. I am sure it caught up to him eventually but at the time it was always flooring that his body had adapted to that kind of diet.
mettamage 9y ago
Nice one! Here is one more anecdote. I was a kid when I started drinking Coca Cola a lot and was in my late teens when I more or less stopped it. There were a couple of reasons, but my teeth completely decaying and being in a really really orange to almost red zone in terms of enamel made me think seriously about stopping the drink -- to be fair Red Bull was doing a lot more. Here is how I stopped it (in order of effectiveness): 1 Replacement. I happened to love tea and found out that green tea does amazing things to your teeth: nothing! And that's a hard feat to accomplish for any drink. I fell in love with green tea because I quite liked the taste and it was healthy. 2 Negative Associations. I demonized cola. When I'd drink it I'd picture myself getting a barrel of acid which would go down my troath and would completely burn my esophagus (the thing that pulls stuff to your stomach when you swallow). I would then be unable to eat and die of hunger. It wasn't a pleasant fantasy, but that form of demonization made me feel I wasn't drinking Coca Cola but pure acid. 3 Being lenient. Sometimes I can't shake the craving, I think I have it once per month. Very rarely I drink it, but in most cases I get myself to drink something like orange juice through a straw. One time this happened so much that I'd drink a glass of orange juice through a straw per day. When this happens, I tend to focus more on drinking green tea and the fact that orange juice is also acid, that works quite well. I feel that I have it under control, especially with Coca Cola since the taste completely changed for me after fighting it so hard, and it tastes less good.

by deyan 9y ago

pascalxus 9y ago

It's awesome that some people can break away from the addiction entirely. But, for me, even if I don't have sugar for months at a time, I still crave it deeply. And when I consume it, it has an extremely profound enjoyable feeling to it. For me, it's not coke or soft drinks, but rather sweet drinks like horchata and milk tea (not the real one), syrupy stuff, donuts, etc. I apply moderation.

deyan 9y ago
To be fair and transparent, I have been completely unable to get rid of sweets - chocolates, brownies, cookies. I have made progress, but nowhere near where I need to be. Then again, life is short, we have to have our little pleasures. Nobody is gonna live forever anyway..

jackhack 9y ago

>Coca Cola. A liter a day... I am stunned. 1L of Coca Cola = 840 calories @ 234grams of sugar. That's 18 Tablespoons. Or a bit more than one measuring cup of sugar per day in addition to whatever else you ate! 1/3 of an adult's typical days caloric needs consumed as pure sugar. Since you were a child, it's likely you were consuming more than half your daily calories this way.

ericmcer 9y ago
The human body is amazingly adaptive though. My old roommates friend would come over frequently and every time he would get a cup from the kitchen, fill it 1/3rd with water, add one of those flavoring crystal packets, and then fill the rest with vodka out of a plastic bottle. No one else would even be drinking. He would drink 2-3 of those cups and seem pretty much unfazed, eat nothing, and go home hours later. I am sure it caught up to him eventually but at the time it was always flooring that his body had adapted to that kind of diet.

mettamage 9y ago

Nice one! Here is one more anecdote. I was a kid when I started drinking Coca Cola a lot and was in my late teens when I more or less stopped it. There were a couple of reasons, but my teeth completely decaying and being in a really really orange to almost red zone in terms of enamel made me think seriously about stopping the drink -- to be fair Red Bull was doing a lot more. Here is how I stopped it (in order of effectiveness): 1 Replacement. I happened to love tea and found out that green tea does amazing things to your teeth: nothing! And that's a hard feat to accomplish for any drink. I fell in love with green tea because I quite liked the taste and it was healthy. 2 Negative Associations. I demonized cola. When I'd drink it I'd picture myself getting a barrel of acid which would go down my troath and would completely burn my esophagus (the thing that pulls stuff to your stomach when you swallow). I would then be unable to eat and die of hunger. It wasn't a pleasant fantasy, but that form of demonization made me feel I wasn't drinking Coca Cola but pure acid. 3 Being lenient. Sometimes I can't shake the craving, I think I have it once per month. Very rarely I drink it, but in most cases I get myself to drink something like orange juice through a straw. One time this happened so much that I'd drink a glass of orange juice through a straw per day. When this happens, I tend to focus more on drinking green tea and the fact that orange juice is also acid, that works quite well. I feel that I have it under control, especially with Coca Cola since the taste completely changed for me after fighting it so hard, and it tastes less good.