Cherry Coke Zero....Fighting the Addiction

I kicked the soda habit over two years ago because I had turned over a new leaf. More so for my daughter, but still also for myself. My new drink of choice was water, or flavored waters. I really didn't miss the soda which was a surprise for me. Even when I was out to eat I'd ask for a glass of water with a slice of lime. I'd been fine all this time having cut soda out of my diet. Until a few weeks ago when the school store was out of flavored water. Now, I have a prefererred brand of bottled water. I prefer Aquafina. There are also brands that I don't like and Dasani is one of them. Unfortunately, the college store sells Coke products, so Dasani was all that was available. Which wasn't too bad when it was at least a flavored version. But this day there were no flavored Dasani's to be found. Feeling that it wouldn't be a big deal for one day, I picked up a Cherry Coke Zero.



And that my friends is where my short addiction to Cherry Coke Zero began. It was two weeks, but it was two weeks of CCZ bliss. I would look forward to class ending to get to the school store to buy my bottle of CCZ to quench, not my thirst, but my addiction. It got so bad that one day the school store hadn't received their soda shipment and there were no CCZ's for the taking and I had to settle for a Sprite Zero. It did not comfort the craving. I left school that day and went grocery shopping. I went directly to the soda aisle, an aisle I hadn't been in for a very long time, and anxiously looked for the black capped, black labeled bottle of CCZ. One bottle...are you kidding me? There's only one bottle left on the shelf? I was grateful that my fellow addicts left me at least one beautiful, 2 liter bottle.

I completed shopping and made it home and cooked dinner. All the while I was thinking about how good my tall glass of CCZ was going to taste with dinner. Needless to say no one was allowed to touch my bottle of CCZ. I did, however, hesitantly offer a sip to my husband. I imagine that my face told the true tale of not wanting to share, because he chuckled and declined my offer. Phew, that was close. I enjoyed that bottle, alone, as if it were a good year of chardonnay.

After only a week of my new addiction I was feeling the effects of it's ingredients. Now Coke Zero products are not to be mistaken with diet sodas. It's its own separate category of drink with its own list of ingredients. So how can a drink without sugar and calories taste so darned good and yet be oh so bad? The headaches, abdominal pain and lower back pain I was experiencing was no joke. As I evaluated what in my diet had changed recently there was only one culprit, Cherry Coke Zero.

I did some research on the internet and found other fellow addicts as well many conflicting opinions, professional and non, regarding the sweeteners in my beloved CCZ. Acesulfame Potassium is one of the newest sweeteners used in CCZ and the controversy surrounding it is that it hasn't been extensively tested. But the FDA did approve it for use in certain products. There's actually a list of products it can be used in. The other culprit...ummm...I mean sweetener is Aspartame which has been surrounded by so much controversy.

So much information to contemplate but the deciding factor for me was the way I felt. I know the only change to my diet prior to my symptoms was the CCZ and as much as I enjoyed it, I wasn't going to subject my body to it any longer. I'm back to water and it's been only a week, but I feel much better. I carry a bottle of water with me now to school so I don't have to go to the school store. Lesson learned.