I also don’t consume soda or alcohol. There might be some obvious trivial-loss-of-pleasure alteration to make (and if you think of one, please tell me) but it’s not jumping out at me.
Do you drink juice? Maybe try watering it down. Generalising from the one example of me, watered juice tastes just as good as straight juice, as long as you’re not drinking them in the same meal. At the level of macronutrients (that is, ignoring vitamins and HFCS), juice really isn’t any healthier than soda. (And regarding a later comment, oil isn’t unhealthy either; even the USDA admits this now if you look at the fine print instead of the food groups.)
I do drink juice. I add a little water to it, but find that any more than a little (about one part water to five or six parts juice) drops it below a relevant threshold of pleasantness. I realize it is not a health drink, but I really hate water, and I do need some liquid intake. (With meals, it’s (skim) milk.)
Have you ever tried adding a drop or two of lemon juice to water? Or (and this might sound weird) plain hot water? It depends on how hot it is where you live, of course, but my ex-boyfriend’s entire family used to drink plain hot water, and after thinking they were very odd, I tried it and found it quite soothing.
You should try the hot water thing if you haven’t actually done so. The cost is pretty much zero.
Have you tried filtering your water, or drinking it very cold? Water tastes like what’s in it, and the taste varies depending on the source. Most city water tastes like the chemicals they use to clean it, while water from a cheap filter tastes like nothing. Cold water also seems to have less taste, or at least I’ve found I can’t detect the taste of cold water (as in, with ice in it, not just cold from the tap).
Seltzer (Or whatever they called carbonated water in your part of the world) is another “almost-water” drink, much like tea. No calories, enough taste to notice, feels like soda.
I like filtered water less than regular tap water from most taps. (I have blind-taste-tested my ability to distinguish them.) Cold water is better. I can’t bear to drink anything carbonated; it makes my mouth hurt.
You know what “Low Fat” is? a warning label. Saturated fat is not bad for you. Switch to whole milk. Water is probably best, but if that just doesn’t work for you, try seltzer or calorie free flavored waters.
I can’t stand whole milk. Even drinking semiskimmed is unpleasant. Seltzer is not an option because I can’t drink anything carbonated; it makes my mouth hurt.
Interesting. I started disliking whole milk soon after I switched to soy milk. Some report the same reaction after switching to rice milk. There are “lite” versions which, while not a substitute for water, could be an alternative to juice.
Taste preferences are malleable, though. I grew up drinking skim milk, and switched over to whole milk when I left for college. I grew a love for the taste of delicious, delicious fats in my drinks.
The first step was switching to higher-fat milk in eating bowls of cereal. It’s a good way to get used to the taste while tricking your brain into not noticing the ‘weird’ texture.
Switching to a high-fat diet helped too. Whole milk really isn’t all that fatty—half and half is better, and heavy cream is a bit much straight (I can drink it straight, but it is way too easy to give my digestive system too much to handle).
There’s nothing inherent about preferences. If you want to include milk as party of a healthy diet, you may as well prefer healthier milk.
Saturated fat may not be more unhealthy than unsaturated fat (although I’m not sure how conclusive the evidence on this is,) but that doesn’t mean that adding calories from fat, without subtracting something else, will make your diet healthier.
Sorry, I kind of assumed you were struggling with “I want to improve my diet by replacing carbohydrate calories from skim milk with fat calories from whole milk”. The point I was trying to make is that preferences are malleable things, and when you don’t care as much about the cost of changing them as compared to the benefits of having ‘better’ preferences, you can go ahead and change them.
If you’re not trying to lose weight, then no reason at all. If you prefer skim milk, then by all means drink it. However, assuming
You are lactose tolerant
You are trying to lose weight
Then you’re better off switching to products like whole milk or, better yet, heavy cream, that provide a higher proportion of calories from fat (trans fats excepted, but those aren’t typically present in milk) and less to none from carbohydrates and protein.
Also, after a little googling, I so see that some people have raised concerns about possible health effects arising from the industrial production of skim milk. It seems farmers don’t just skim the cream off like I thought, but add various other things like milk solids and Vitamin A and D back in. At first glance, the evidence of harmful effects from this doesn’t seem compelling—mostly extrapolations from animal studies and hypothesized biochemical causal chains that aren’t actually tied to overall mortality rates, quality of life, or anything else we care about. However, it is suggestive that this subject might be worthy of further research.
I do drink juice. I add a little water to it, but find that any more than a little (about one part water to five or six parts juice) drops it below a relevant threshold of pleasantness. I realize it is not a health drink, but I really hate water, and I do need some liquid intake. (With meals, it’s (skim) milk.)
Juice selection may make a difference to the desirable dilution ratio. A little lemon or lime goes a long way!
I don’t generally drink juice at all. I don’t find it all that satisfying, and it often gives me heartburn… I drink multiple pots of tea per day, though.
Do you drink juice? Maybe try watering it down. Generalising from the one example of me, watered juice tastes just as good as straight juice, as long as you’re not drinking them in the same meal. At the level of macronutrients (that is, ignoring vitamins and HFCS), juice really isn’t any healthier than soda. (And regarding a later comment, oil isn’t unhealthy either; even the USDA admits this now if you look at the fine print instead of the food groups.)
I do drink juice. I add a little water to it, but find that any more than a little (about one part water to five or six parts juice) drops it below a relevant threshold of pleasantness. I realize it is not a health drink, but I really hate water, and I do need some liquid intake. (With meals, it’s (skim) milk.)
Have you ever tried adding a drop or two of lemon juice to water? Or (and this might sound weird) plain hot water? It depends on how hot it is where you live, of course, but my ex-boyfriend’s entire family used to drink plain hot water, and after thinking they were very odd, I tried it and found it quite soothing.
I don’t like it when they give me lemon slices in my water at restaurants. Plain hot water sounds fantastically unappealing.
You should try the hot water thing if you haven’t actually done so. The cost is pretty much zero.
Have you tried filtering your water, or drinking it very cold? Water tastes like what’s in it, and the taste varies depending on the source. Most city water tastes like the chemicals they use to clean it, while water from a cheap filter tastes like nothing. Cold water also seems to have less taste, or at least I’ve found I can’t detect the taste of cold water (as in, with ice in it, not just cold from the tap).
Seltzer (Or whatever they called carbonated water in your part of the world) is another “almost-water” drink, much like tea. No calories, enough taste to notice, feels like soda.
I like filtered water less than regular tap water from most taps. (I have blind-taste-tested my ability to distinguish them.) Cold water is better. I can’t bear to drink anything carbonated; it makes my mouth hurt.
You know what “Low Fat” is? a warning label. Saturated fat is not bad for you. Switch to whole milk. Water is probably best, but if that just doesn’t work for you, try seltzer or calorie free flavored waters.
I can’t stand whole milk. Even drinking semiskimmed is unpleasant. Seltzer is not an option because I can’t drink anything carbonated; it makes my mouth hurt.
Interesting. I started disliking whole milk soon after I switched to soy milk. Some report the same reaction after switching to rice milk. There are “lite” versions which, while not a substitute for water, could be an alternative to juice.
Similar to your comment about diet coke, having drunk reduced fat milk for about fifteen years, whole milk now tastes nasty to me.
Why switch to whole milk when it’s not inherently preferable?
Taste preferences are malleable, though. I grew up drinking skim milk, and switched over to whole milk when I left for college. I grew a love for the taste of delicious, delicious fats in my drinks.
The first step was switching to higher-fat milk in eating bowls of cereal. It’s a good way to get used to the taste while tricking your brain into not noticing the ‘weird’ texture.
Switching to a high-fat diet helped too. Whole milk really isn’t all that fatty—half and half is better, and heavy cream is a bit much straight (I can drink it straight, but it is way too easy to give my digestive system too much to handle).
There’s nothing inherent about preferences. If you want to include milk as party of a healthy diet, you may as well prefer healthier milk.
In what way is higher fat milk healthier?
Saturated fat may not be more unhealthy than unsaturated fat (although I’m not sure how conclusive the evidence on this is,) but that doesn’t mean that adding calories from fat, without subtracting something else, will make your diet healthier.
Sorry, I kind of assumed you were struggling with “I want to improve my diet by replacing carbohydrate calories from skim milk with fat calories from whole milk”. The point I was trying to make is that preferences are malleable things, and when you don’t care as much about the cost of changing them as compared to the benefits of having ‘better’ preferences, you can go ahead and change them.
If you’re not trying to lose weight, then no reason at all. If you prefer skim milk, then by all means drink it. However, assuming
You are lactose tolerant
You are trying to lose weight
Then you’re better off switching to products like whole milk or, better yet, heavy cream, that provide a higher proportion of calories from fat (trans fats excepted, but those aren’t typically present in milk) and less to none from carbohydrates and protein.
Also, after a little googling, I so see that some people have raised concerns about possible health effects arising from the industrial production of skim milk. It seems farmers don’t just skim the cream off like I thought, but add various other things like milk solids and Vitamin A and D back in. At first glance, the evidence of harmful effects from this doesn’t seem compelling—mostly extrapolations from animal studies and hypothesized biochemical causal chains that aren’t actually tied to overall mortality rates, quality of life, or anything else we care about. However, it is suggestive that this subject might be worthy of further research.
Juice selection may make a difference to the desirable dilution ratio. A little lemon or lime goes a long way!
I don’t generally drink juice at all. I don’t find it all that satisfying, and it often gives me heartburn… I drink multiple pots of tea per day, though.
Heartburn is acid-reflux… there are fruit juices that are less acidic if you want that.
I’m out of ideas then. (^_^)