6 healthy soda alternatives

healthiest alternatives to drinking soda

Kick start your weight loss, gain more energy, and be surprised by how much healthier you feel once  you remove soda from your life.

Soda is addictive, but it's full of empty calories that make you gain weight and feel sluggish without providing your body with any benefits at all.

Try replacing your soda with one of these healthy alternatives that are good for your body. These healthy alternatives to soda have zero or low calories, are full of vitamins and nutrients, and provide your body with much more energy than a can of soda ever could. The best part is, each of these healthy soda alternatives are tasty and refreshing!

>> Cut back on caffeine and drink less coffee

Why you should quit drinking soda

There are plenty of convincing reasons why you should give up soda. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should consider giving up soda and replacing it with a healthy alternative.

• Soda has hundreds of "empty calories" that make you gain weight and can slow your metabolism.
• Soda has zero nutrients.
• Soda can increase the risk of kidney stones, osteoporosis, and heart burn.
• The sugars and chemicals in soda is directly linked to diabetes, weight gain, and heart disease.
• Soda can weaken and ruin your teeth.
• Drinking soda has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's and dementia.

Why you should quite drinking diet soda

Even diet soda is not without its risks. The artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can cause metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease.

Ironically, diet soda may even cause you to gain more weight than drinking full-calorie soda.

The chemicals and sweeteners used in diet soda stimulate the sweet-craving part of your brain, lowering your will power and making you hungrier faster. Drinking diet soda may make you eat more, and is more likely to lead to snacking. Even diet soda can make you gain quite a bit of weight, despite being calorie free.

Giving up soda is the easiest and fastest way to lose weight

I gained a lot of weight during university. I'm not a tall guy, but I topped out at around 240 pounds at my heaviest. One day, I decided to do something about it.

I didn't start any sort of crazy diet. I didn't start exercising (at least not right away). Instead  I did just one thing: I decided to stop drinking soda.

It was amazing. The pounds began melting away. I literally didn't do anything else at the beginning. I just stopped drinking soda completely. And you know what? Now I haven't had more than maybe ten sodas in over a decade.

One regular sized bottle of cola has around 200 calories (that could be more than 10% of your body's daily caloric requirements!). Instead of coming from healthy fats or proteins, these calories come directly from sugar, providing your body with zero nutrients or benefits that it needs.

After just a few weeks of quitting soda, your taste buds will re-adjust themselves. You will find that you don't crave it, and don't even miss it. The funny thing is, you might even stop enjoying the taste of soda completely. The sweetness of soda is far beyond anything found in nature, and it dulls your sense of taste. After quitting soda, things like fruit and vegetables will suddenly taste much sweeter. Eventually, you'll find that soda is too sweet, and doesn't even taste good anymore.

This helps with weight loss in another way too. Once you give up soda, you slowly stop craving sweet things. It will become much easier to pick a healthier snack over a cookie or candy bar as your body will no longer be craving as much sugar.

What to drink instead of soda

If you find yourself craving a cola, try replacing it with one of these cold and refreshing soda alternatives.

1. unsweetened iced tea (with lemon)

Zero calories

I'm from Texas. In the south, it's almost blasphemous to suggest drinking unsweetened iced tea. But I'm a modern man, and I can go against the tradition of sugary sweet tea.

I'm lucky in that I never actually liked sweet tea. I actually thought that it was iced tea that I disliked, but it turns out that I really love strong unsweetened iced tea with a little bit of lemon or lime.

Tea is so good for you! Tea is full of healthy antioxidants and even has a bit of caffeine to help wake you up when you are feeling sleepy throughout the day.

2. flavored seltzer

Zero calories

Maybe it's the bubbly carbonation that you crave about soda. Instead of reaching for a cola, pick up a seltzer, sparkling mineral water, or soda water.

These drinks may satisfy your craving for the carbonation that you were used to from soda, but have zero calories, artificial sweeteners, or chemicals.

3. infused water

Zero calories

Most people don't drink nearly enough water. Nowadays, most of  us go through life in a state of perpetual minor dehydration. It's hard to remember to drink enough water.

What helped me to drink more water was the discovery of infused water. This can prevent water from being boring, and can make you actually want to drink it instead of a soda.

Infuse water by adding herbs or slices of citrus (or any other fruit) to a large bottle of ice water and letting it chill in the refrigerator overnight.

Try some of my favorite ice water infusions:

• Rosemary and lemon
• Lemon and fresh mint
• Orange
• Lemon-lime
• Watermelon and basil

Mix and match different fruits and herbs to find the tastiest combos for delicious and refreshing infused water.

4. cold-brewed coffee

Zero calories

Want some caffeine but don't want a hot drink? Cold-brewed coffee is becoming more and more popular nowadays.

If you don't add any sugar or milk to your cold brew coffee, it won't have any calories at all, and will provide you with a refreshing and cooling drink.

You can steep cold brew coffee overnight in the refrigerator and take it with you to work the next day for when your soda cravings hit.

Cold brew coffee has slightly more caffeine than hot coffee, so be careful to limit your intake!

5. cold-pressed vegetable juice

Low calories and high nutrients

Be careful with this one! Store bought juice is no good, and fruit juice is just as high in calories as  soda. Healthy just is made from 80-90% raw green vegetables and made fresh at home without any preservatives.

You can get tons of amazing nutrients from drinking fresh pressed vegetable juice (look up green juice on Google) but make sure not to add much (or any) fruit. Pure vegetable juice may taste bitter and be hard to drink at first, but once you re-train your taste buds, you might really learn to like it!

6. coconut water

Low calories and lots of vitamins and electrolytes

Crack open a fresh coconut, or buy a bottle of (unsweetened!) coconut water. Coconut water is a bit of an acquired taste. At first, it's a little salty and not at all sweet, but after a while I learned to love it, and I bet that you will too.

Coconut water is chock-full of vitamins and dehydrating electrolytes. It's also an awesome recovery drink after a hard workout.