We all know fizzy drinks are generally bad for us and diet drinks have all kinds of nasty chemicals. So, if you are addicted to the pop and want to try weening yourself off them, here's a nifty little thing I found that seems to do the trick :

I've been mixing a little orange squash (tesco value for literally pence) with soda water. Soda water is just carbonated water, it has zero calories. The orange squash often comes with some sweetners but you're only using a little bit so it helps to reduce calories.

You could also dilute natural, fresh fruit juice with soda water to ensure you're not getting the additives etc. This radically reduces the calories and sugar you're putting into your body while still allowing you to have a bit of fizz!

Fruit juice, although healthy, also has a lot of sugar, albeit natural, and isn't that brilliant consumed in copious amounts so diluting is a good idea .

This is probably fairly obvious but just thought I'd share

xx

That's a good idea ty! Was gonna pop down to Tesco today so I think I'll try it out

I really like the Tesco Lighter Choices fruit juices too, it's about 12 calories for 250ml. And the flavored sparkling waters are pretty decent too.

I'm not too bothered about the sugar in fruit juices personally (My poor dentist!). I'd much rather have something somewhat natural and vitamin filled than plain old Cola which has 0 nutritional value

I have found that it's really not the sweetness of pop that I miss, but the fizziness. I drink a big liter bottle of sparkling seltzer water or club soda every evening. I actually look forward to it every night. I cannot have any flavorings in it because of a lot of diet restrictions, but am generally satisfied with just the fizziness.

I did find this week a brand of organic seltzer water that uses natural fruit essenance instead of the cover-all "natural flavorings" which I can have. I love them, but they are a rare treat because they are kinda pricey.

Amanda,
why not switch to sodastream? [http://www.sodastream.com]? I never was big on fizzy drinks but my BF has a similar machine and I so got used to it, that I had to get my own. I find that I drink more of the fizzy water than I would of the regular water. It is very inexpensive, a refill cartridge runs me down some $22 or so (the price may vary in the US, it will be probably even cheaper).

You could also invest in some Da Vinci/Torani sugar-free syrups and mix them with soda water. There's tons of flavors including watermelon, grape, lemon, orange, chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, strawberry, pretty much EVERYTHING--there's also seasonal flavors like eggnog, gingerbread etc. Seriously more than you can imagine! You can use them for so many things.

Oh neat, tomato! I want a sodastream now!

I love the "bubbles" and have swapped completely from diet soda to the club soda. When I go out to dinner I usually order a club soda with a splash of cranberry juice. It's really refreshing.

Yes, but soda water retains liquids and you weight more when you get on the scale.