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I quit caffeine recently, sort of accidentally. I've never liked coffee, but I've been a diet soda addict for about 15 years, going multiple days in a row wher
by tombert 6y ago
I quit caffeine recently, sort of accidentally.
I've never liked coffee, but I've been a diet soda addict for about 15 years, going multiple days in a row where it's the only liquid I ingest, but due to the pandemic, I don't go out for groceries much anymore, opting instead to just order from Instacart. At least in my area, soda is substantially more expensive online than picking it up in the store, and because of this, I bought a SodaStream machine, a 20lb CO2 tank from a welding supply store, a refill adapter, and low-calorie water-flavoring packs that don't have any caffeine.
The headaches stopped after a couple days, and I fortunately didn't have any other side effects (I think because the caffeine concentration in soda tends to be a lot lower than that of coffee).
The positives were almost immediate; my sleep improved after a day, and while it might be psychosomatic, I think my focus for work improved a bit.
- m463 6y agoI think sugar is worse. Someone here also mentioned that even artificial sweeteners affect your blood sugar.
- tombert 6y agoI'm not a doctor, but at least according to Mayo Clinic (which I think is somewhat respected?), artificial sweeteners don't affect blood sugar [0]. > Sugar substitutes don't affect your blood sugar level. In fact, most artificial sweeteners are considered "free foods" — foods containing less than 20 calories and 5 grams or less of carbohydrates — because they don't count as calories or carbohydrates on a diabetes exchange. Remember, however, that other ingredients in foods containing artificial sweeteners can still affect your blood sugar level. That said, it's probably still not super healthy for my to be ingesting as much aspartame as I do. Eventually I need to ween myself off that, but one step at a time I suppose. [0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expert-answers/artificial-sweeteners/faq-20058038 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expe...
- m463 6y agook, now i'm going to have to find it. EDIT: can't find it. It was just someone pointing out that artificial sweeteners don't cause blood sugar to spike, but they might cause a crash.
- tombert 6y agoI'm not going to claim that artificial sweeteners are harmless, it would almost certainly be preferable for me to be drinking water without any flavorings. That said, there's a lot lower-hanging-fruit for me to cut out of my diet first; potato chips, snack cakes, and Taco Bell are vices that I probably can shake a bit quicker.
- eurasiantiger 6y agoIIRC artificial sweeteners do not affect blood sugar directly, but they can still cause an insulin response, lowering blood sugar and making one hungry.
- bluntfang 6y agoaccording to this study [0] artificial sweeteners affect your insulin response and resistance, but some other cursory googling says that this is a contested claim without much study. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014832 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014832
- eurasiantiger 6y agoActually, a cursory Google Scholar search pretty much confirms that these things have been widely studied and that at least sucralose DOES affect the insulin response.
- neom 6y agoI've started drinking this[1] and I really like it. On one hand, it's been kinda expensive because I really like it so I drink it a lot. On the other hand, I'm drinking loads of water and feel great, so I guess in a way it's an investment. [1] https://liquiddeath.ca/products/sparkling-water https://liquiddeath.ca/products/sparkling-water
- tombert 6y agoI've been pretty happy with just the SodaStream. at least after I got the adapters and attachments to refill the CO2 cartridges myself, since buying the refills from SodaStream themselves is ridiculously overpriced. It doesn't carbonate "like a beer", but it does carbonate "like a soda", which, as I stated, is basically my vice of choice.