Sweetener-Free Drinks

[Earthling]

I'm diabetic so I tend to drink things with sweeteners. I suspect that these sweeteners are at least partly to blame for my chronic headaches, and I want to get away from them but I don't know what I could drink that doesn't have sweeteners. I know I sound very fussy but I'm just trying to be realistic, and I know I don't want to drink these things all day:

1. Full sugar drinks - I don't want to have to inject every time I want a drink, and I don't want the extra calories. This includes fruit juice.

2. Mineral water - I like it but I drink at least 2 - 3 litres of liquid a day and I think I'd get bored of plain water pretty quickly.

3. Rice/oat milk - low in sugar but a bit 'heavy' to have in large quantities.

4. Tea & coffee - It's a lot of caffeine, and I don't like them unsweetened anyway.

Everything else I can think of has sweeteners - flavoured water, tonic water, squash, all non-sugar fizzy drinks...

Is there anything I've missed? I think I'm doomed to mineral water and green tea to be honest but thought it was worth asking all the knowledgeable people here first to see if there's something I missed.

[rabid_child]

You could try Hint waters, which are waters with flavoring but no sweetener. Some of them are pretty good. It's like FruitWater before they started adding sweetener, which really pissed me off.

There's also MetroMint which is a mint flavored water, though honestly it reminded me of drinking toothpaste water.

I really like some unsweetened iced teas. I don't know the brand, but one company makes an iced jasmine green tea that's fantastic. Another I had yesterday was a white tea with mint and no sweeteners and it was also really good. The caffeine in green/white tea is pretty low.

[Hamry]

I recommend green tea too if you like it. Do fruit teas have caffeine in?

The only other thing I can think of is putting a slice of lemon in cold/hot water, don't suppose that sounds appealing? Bit bland yeah but I love ice cold lemon water in the summer.

[broccolichick]

I like soda water with just a hint of lime. Great flavor, zero calories.

[.ghost.]

Could you maybe try soda water + a little bit of fruit juice in to flavour it?

Or as someone else suggested fruit tea may be worth a try (you can let them cool and drink them cold I think as well).

There's also other herbal teas you may like, e.g. peppermint, ginger + lemon, camomile, redbush/rooibos (all caffeine free). Have you tried any of those?

[The Lurker]

There are tonnes of herbal and fruit infusions - great for hot drinks . . . never tried them cold, I just stick to plain water usually . . .

[megbot]

have you looked into stevia? It's supposed to be safe for diabetics. I personally haven't tried it yet but it seems interesting to me.

[Leo SunShine]

I like soda water with just a hint of lime. Great flavor, zero calories.

There is a product in the US (philly area at least) called True lemon (it also comes in lime and orange) It's dehydrated lemon juice (lime, orange) that you mix with water or whatever you want really. I find it's much easier than carrying around a whole lemon. There is also no sugar or saccharin in it.

http://www.truelemon.com/

[Earthling]

Thanks everyone for the replies, it's been really helpful :rockon:


You could try Hint waters, which are waters with flavoring but no sweetener. Some of them are pretty good. It's like FruitWater before they started adding sweetener, which really pissed me off.

I've never heard of them or seen them, but I like the idea of flavoured water. I LOVE lemon & lime flavoured drinks.


There's also other herbal teas you may like, e.g. peppermint, ginger + lemon, camomile, redbush/rooibos (all caffeine free). Have you tried any of those?

I love nearly all herbal teas! The ones I have in the cupboard are peppermint, green tea, jasmine tea, Turkish apple, apple and cinammon and probably a few more I've forgotten about. I think herbal teas would be a really good thing to drink in the evenings, but for the daytime I prefer something cold.. unless it's freezing all day like today, apparently London is colder than the Antarctic today. :|


have you looked into stevia? It's supposed to be safe for diabetics. I personally haven't tried it yet but it seems interesting to me.

I just looked this up, it sounds really interesting. I belong to a board for diabetics so I'll ask for their take on it.


There is a product in the US (philly area at least) called True lemon (it also comes in lime and orange) It's dehydrated lemon juice (lime, orange) that you mix with water or whatever you want really. I find it's much easier than carrying around a whole lemon. There is also no sugar or saccharin in it.

http://www.truelemon.com/

Mmm that sounds lush, if they deliver to the UK I'll order some of that.

[zoebird]

i recommend bija rooibos chai made into iced tea.

it's a great tea that balances electrolytes, is caffine free, and has a lot of great flavor. it doesn't need sweetner of any kind.

with this, the best thing to do is simply get off sweetners as best you can. come up with a weaning plan, and soon you won't want them. :)

[Earthling]

There is a product in the US (philly area at least) called True lemon (it also comes in lime and orange) It's dehydrated lemon juice (lime, orange) that you mix with water or whatever you want really. I find it's much easier than carrying around a whole lemon. There is also no sugar or saccharin in it.

http://www.truelemon.com/

Ah I just tried to order some... the price of the sachets was $12, and postage and packing was $58 so I'll have to pass! Maybe they'll bring them out in the UK sometime.


i recommend bija rooibos chai made into iced tea.

it's a great tea that balances electrolytes, is caffine free, and has a lot of great flavor. it doesn't need sweetner of any kind.

with this, the best thing to do is simply get off sweetners as best you can. come up with a weaning plan, and soon you won't want them. :)

I had a lot of rooibos in South Africa and it was drinkable but took a bit of getting used to. I never tried it as an iced tea though, that sounds interesting.

I don't really want the sweeteners, I'm sick of fizzy drinks. The only reason I drink them is for lack of an alternative, but I've found lots of great ideas in this thread. :)

[rabid_child]

Maybe you could find someone in the US to buy it and ship it to you? It'd probably be cheaper than internet purchase based shipping. (I would but I've never seen the stuff anywhere myself!!)

You can make your herbal teas into iced tea you know! Then just carry them in a refillable bottle. :)