How to Quit Drinking Soda

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly half of Americans drink sugar-sweetened beverages (usually soda) every day. Drinking soda is associated with weight gain/obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and arthritis.

The simple fact is that drinking soda is an unhealthy habit that can be difficult to quit. We sat down with Medical Weight Loss Expert Sheryl Bingham, FNP-C, to find out what we can do to make it easier for us to quit drinking soda.

Q: What are some ways to make it easier to quit drinking soda?

A: It is absolutely possible to quit drinking soda. There are a couple of different ways to do that.

Some people just go ‘cold turkey,’ and they never pick it up again. That’s a very difficult thing for most people to do. It makes the transition much easier if you’re able to replace that soda with something else.

I’ve often talked to smokers, for example, who have said that one of the most difficult things about quitting cigarettes, aside from the nicotine, was finding something to do with their hands. In many cases, people have found success in replacing cigarettes with sunflower seeds or pistachios.

Something similar might help when trying to quit soda. There’s a certain ritual to drinking soda, particularly if you have a desk job – every few minutes, you might take a sip without even thinking about it. Replace that soda with water. If plain water doesn’t do the trick, consider flavoring the water with an infuser. If you don’t have a water infuser bottle, you can try something like Crystal Light®. While Crystal Light is not an ideal solution, it’s still healthier than drinking soda. Seltzer water is another solution – La Croix® is a particularly popular option right now.

Q: How much water should we drink each day?

A: So many people say that you should drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day. While that’s a nice idea, there’s actually no science behind that specific recommendation. I actually think there’s some danger in getting too wrapped up in numbers – they make it easier to become discouraged.

I encourage people to keep things simple. If you want to drink a 12oz. can of soda, fine – just try to drink double that much (24oz.) of water before you drink that soda in order to balance it out.

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Sheryl Bingham, FNP-C
If you would like to schedule an appointment with Sheryl Bingham, please click here or call 801-397-6150.