This is what I was drinking upon diagnosis. Have never been able to even look at the stuff since without feeling like I was going to throw up. Uh! It makes me sick, even now.
I actually just saw that in a random convenience store and wondered what it is!
Don’t forget Fresca! When I was diagnosed, Tab and Fresca were the only “acceptable” choices if one wanted soda and was diabetic. Actually, as a pre-teen, they were better than nothing, and I drank them. Neither tasted terrible to me. Then 7-Up came out with a diet soda, soon to be followed by diet Coke and diet Pepsi. I never have been a great fan of anything carbonated, but sadly it took me years to give up soda all together. For me, changing to just water or drinking milk at meals has been greatly beneficial. My thirst is quenched, I lost weight, and I can drink as much water as I want without worrying about carbs. Life is sweet… no pun intended.
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I think this is something that a lot of diabetics go through. It is hard. When I first got it, I didn’t eat anything bad, as time went on little by little I would have things that were bad. I try , don’t get me wrong, and am knowledgeable enough to know how this disease should be treated but it is still hard. There are days when I will eat a candy bar, or a dunkin donut, I don’t drink the regular soda almost never, but I do drink a lot of diet soda. I remember before I was diagnosed, I would get so thirsty and drink almost a 2 liter bottle of regular sprite. Little did I know at the time. I also have gone through periods of alcohol consumption. It’s pretty much a case of denial I think. I went through years of not testing myself. I have started again in the past couple of years and test myself every day up to six times. I can’t say why I didn’t pay attention, but it always did worry me and make me feel guilty and confused about what I was doing.
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What about Tab. It’s still around.
Yes the diet drinks do taste different to a lot of people.
I am sort of a hypocrite today. Barely had any carbs but went all day without testing. The math in my head activity and diet says I should be OK but I am slacking !!!
I need to start a topic on that. I see my own posts kind of on the angry side to say the least I just want to hit the “reset button” drink and feel good for a wile.
Last 2 experiments resulted in fighting hypos. If anything is going to motivate me to get a continuous monitor it will be so I can enjoy a good buzz without so much worry ruining it.
Stigma of diet drinks. I have personal friends who are T2 and older than me, who 100% refuse to drink diet soda and are proud about having their regular coke and view it as a way they are superior to me.
And me? I’m not young, I’m 51, but I was diagnosed in the early 80’s just as aspartame drinks took over. I think diet drinks taste “normal” and all other sodas taste “funny”.
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100% agreed, I grew up with a t1 dad so it’s all I ever drank! Most of my friends and family drink diet too though and don’t even like the taste of regular soft drinks. I really don’t get the stigma thing, but to each their own. Once I was buying a Coke Zero somewhere and this guy beside me said “be careful with that stuff, I never would touch it it will give you cancer”. Of course, he had a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket, so that’s the logic I was dealing with…
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I have to fight my doctor sister-in-law every time I visit her because of the diet soda issue. My husband drinks regular Pepsi, and every meal is a battle for both of us and she is adamant that diet soda causes as much weight gain as regular soda but also causes cancer and all sorts of other problems. She kept suggesting I switch from diet soda to orange juice as the “healthier” alternative. I told her orange juice would make me super sick because of the sugar content, and she said we get the no sugar added variety for my type 2 mother-in-law so it should be fine, lol. Nutritional labels aren’t as consistent in Egypt, and most people dont know how to read them, but eventually I found an oj container with the nutrition label, and showed her that the orange juice she was getting had as much sugar as my husband’s Pepsi. She still didn’t believe me, and still gives it to my type 2 relatives, but at least I confused her to the point I get left alone.
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When I was diagnosed Tab and Fresca were the only alternatives. Because of the saccharine I hated both so I just gave up soda. But I was diagnosed three months before I was shipped off to college, so as you might expect beer became my favorite carbonated beverage 
. I now know that wasn’t a good thing, but at the time there were no glucose test meters for feedback, and I was never really trained on anything more than “avoid sweets”. I thought beer was OK, and it was a right of passage for me and my friends.
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Every once in awhile I buy some Tab just for the disgusting trip down memory lane. Wow, that was horrible but we just didn’t know any better because there wasn’t any options. My Mom would also do a store brand sugar free soda that was flavored like black cherry or lemon lime. We have come a long way.
When the family gets together next, I think we will do a blind taste test, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi, Tab etc to see what or if there is a difference in taste profiles. Or enough to even notice.
Tab- one of those memories that puts a smile on my face. How bad it was but we drank it.
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I never liked the taste of diet drinks. Now that I think about it in the last year since diagnosis I have rarely drank anything but water.
edit, water and coffee
Convenience stores have 100s choices but not much un sweetened without artificial sweeteners I know I looked.
Off the shelf bottled unsweetened Honest Tea Peach ginger flavor.
The best I have found. Although I usually order it from Amazon because they always carry the unsweetened version.
They have many variations that are sweetened with stuff of course.
I never have used sugar or any sweetener in my ice tea.
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I make my own soda from scratch and it is delicious. Target carries a wide variety of sugar free powder drink mix and their flavors vary from time to time. They do have a trace of aspartame but each envelope of powder claims to make 2 quarts of drink but I find it tastes much better if I make 4 quarts per envelope and then carbonate it. Last time I computed my total costs, I think it came out to about $0.13 to produce 2 quarts of soda so it is very inexpensive as well as a great taste.
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THAT is awesome.
My new toy, thanks for posting that ! I have a buddy that welds goes to the gas place all the time so I will get a fat tank too.
Tap rite makes the best regulators but they come in several models. The most common model pressurizes on the high side from 0-60lbs and people buy that one and are sorely disappointed. For only a few $ more you can get the model that on the high side displays 0-160lbs and the extra money is well worth it. When I tested the 0-60, never got satisfactory carbonation as the unit never quite delivered 60 lbs… I use the 0-160 model and pressurize to 62lbs and it makes an awesome soda. Enjoy your new rig. You can buy all the parts at Amazon for less than buying a package.