For the past week or so, I've been cutting way back on my consumption of Diet Mt. Dew. I normally drink 6-8 of the 16.9 oz bottles per day, which is not great. With the help of 4C Totally Light 2Go Sticks I'm switching to filtered tap water - we have a Pur filter on our kitchen faucet. I got four 24oz water bottles, and I'm learning which of the flavors of Totally Light are the best. So far, Lemonade, Punch, and to a lesser degree the Energy Rush flavors.
The primary aim is to cut out the aspartame I'm consuming massive quantities of - dropping Dt Mt Dew goes a long way towards achieving this goal. The Totally Light powders don't have any aspartame, but they DO have acesulfame potassium, which is not great for you but not nearly as bad as aspartame. They also have Sucralose, which is a chemically modified sugar so it is not absorbed by the body.
A secondary aim is to cut out or vastly reduce my caffeine
intake, this is good. The Energy Rush drinks are like energy drinks,
but diluted being in 24 oz rather than 16.9. Not horrible, since I
usually only have one a day. The rest of the day I drink the
uncaffeinated lemonade or punch, sometimes one of the teas (some of them
are uncaffeinated as well).
The Red Tea is awesome,
except for the peach flavor which I cannot get past. If it was just Red
Tea, no peach, I would love the stuff.
So - I'm cutting out aspartame, most of the caffeine, and saving a lot of money as well. The drink mixes are packed 20/$5.60 or so, or about 0.28 per 24oz I drink. That makes it cost about $0.20 per 16.9 oz normal bottle to compare with. Dt Mt Dew was quite a bit more, and getting harder to find in the stores for some reason. Even on sale 3/$9 they were $0.50 per bottle, and regular price was around $0.75 per bottle.
Eventually I may end up switching to just water - or perhaps water with a lemon additive that has NO artificial sweeteners in it, like TrueLemon, but I can't seem to find the stuff locally.
EDIT: I found True Lemon - it's in the baking aisle near the truvia and sweet & low. I'm not sure I like it though it is far more healthy than the stuff with the acesulphame potassium in it. It's almost exactly like adding pure lemon juice to your water. Not lemonade, just lemony water. I'll try it on and off for a bit to see if I can adapt.
