If your business depends on selling Coca-Cola, Pepsi or some other carbonated beverage, you’re not going to enjoy these next few words.
For a while, I couldn’t log onto a news website without seeing a story about the dangers of drinking soda; it was as if the headlines and photos of supermarket soft drink displays were waiting to scare my eyes with every mouse click. Knowing that Diet Pepsi and Coke Zero weren’t my best thirst-quencher choices at lunch, in the afternoon, at dinner, after dinner… I began re-thinking what I was drinking.
It had become a regular routine to always load whichever 12-packs of pop were on sale that week into the grocery cart. I mean, how could you not grab four dozen cans of diet lime for only $11? But after reading more and realizing that my love of diet soda was crowding water, fresh-squeezed orange juice and other healthier drink choices out of my mental go-to drink menu, I decided to give up the daily diet soda routine that I’ve clung to for years.
As of this writing, I’ve now gone about 6-weeks without hoisting a can or bottle of anything from the fizzy drink family — and it’s been a very wise choice in a number of ways.
After about a week, not only did I not miss drinking soda, but I began craving water. In the middle of the day, ice-cold, bottled agua is now a must instead of a vending machine Coke or Pepsi. Now that my bottled water fix can get triggered simply by driving alongside a lake, I’m never too far from a Dasani, Aquafina or a faucet to fill an empty bottle. Is my body telling me that I need to make up for lost time and guzzle as much water as possible following years of pounding down diet drinks? That may be the case.
There also might be a drink-coloring effect going on as well. So far, I’ve had no interest in the many varieties of flavored bottled waters that look more like watered-down fruit juice. When I see them in the convenience store cooler I think, why would I want a 120 calorie-or-more drink that tastes like weak, just-add-water lemonade? For me, the zero-calorie, no-frills bottled water choices are working fine. However, I won’t shy away from a berry or lemon flavored clear water if it’s available. No bubbles please.
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Speaking of see-through drinks I might have tried at one point, I’m incredibly grateful that Crystal Pepsi is a long-gone chapter in the history of bad beverage ideas.
I can imagine the reaction of the millennial generation when learning about this pre-millennial flop: “Seriously!? Like, how did that ever become a thing?”
Scott is a freelance columnist.
Twitter: @viberider18