I used to be a diet soda junkie. Looking back, I have no idea why I liked it so much, but I even dug the metallic, artificial flavor. Even though there’s not much in the way of conclusive evidence that diet soda 100% positively absolutely will kill you (though there’s plenty in the literature about why it’s not good for you), I definitely got creeped out whenever I thought about all the crazy chemicals I was putting into my body. I tried many times to quit or cut back, but I just couldn’t do it. As My Mother the Psychotherapist always says, you have to want to quit, and, well, I didn’t. Not yet, anyway.

I still remember the moment I lost my taste for diet soda. It was a few summers ago,and I was waiting with an ex-boyfriend and his family for a ferry to Baldhead Island, NC. I’d been up since well before the sun and it was now late afternoon. Caffeine was in order. It being close to 100 degrees, I automatically forked over $1.75 for a bottle of diet coke. I took a sip, made a face, and I knew right away. This relationship was over.

You know it’s right, I think, when you don’t miss someone or something, when the absence barely even occurs to you. Clearly, I’m not just talking about soda here, but it applies. Since, I can’t really make a neat segue into talking about experimenting with other sodas or revisiting sodas past without revealing details about my first few months of single-hood, let’s move right along to the “why” of this post…

Zevia!  So, this stuff is another calorie-free soda, only it’s sweetened with stevia, a natural sweetener that hasn’t been proven (yet) to be harmful. It comes in all different flavors, and I recently tried the ginger root beer flavor. I have to admit, it was decent, but not enough to make me want to buy it again. I liked the taste, but I still got a headache like I do from diet soda. While I do occasionally use stevia, I can’t help feeling like it’s only a matter of time before it’s revealed to be toxic. True, maybe not the same kind of toxic as aspartame or sucralose, but still not doing you any favors. Oh dear, I feel another metaphor coming on…

At the end of the day, I’m just in it for the carbonation, and seltzer works just fine.

What are your thoughts on diet sodas? Any favorite alternatives?