7 tips for eliminating pop and soda from your diet

Sipping lots of sugary sodas as well as fruit drinks, sweetened iced teas and other soft drinks is a setup for weight gain, diabetes, brittle bones and more.  Experts suspect that phosphoric acid in colas interferes with natural bone-building in the body, even if you're getting plenty of calcium. Here are some helpful tips on replacing soda in your everyday diet.

You can fix the damage, and you can kick the soft drink habit. But it's harder than you might think.

• We have programmed our taste buds to crave sweetness, and so weaning ourselves off sugar can be difficult.
• Like any habit, it takes persistence to truly break it forever.

• Cutting back on soda will result in lower, steadier blood sugar levels, which means a lower risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
• Eliminating the 150 calories for each soda from your diet will help you lose weight or maintain your weight.

• Start the day with a large bottle of cold water, and constantly replenish it as the day goes by.

• After water, daily drinks that are good for your health include coffee, tea, milk, natural unsweetened fruit juices and even wine.
• Spread those out through the day, and you diminish the need for sodas.

Brew your own fruity, herbal iced tea the easy way.

1. Drop four tea bags in 1 litre (1 quart) of filtered water, refrigerate overnight.
2. Give it extra zing with a spritz of lemon juice and enjoy as much as you wish as a replacement for water.

• Diet sodas are one way to wean yourself off of a soda habit, but they should be a temporary solution, not a permanent one.
• There's new evidence that having more than one a day raises your risk for metabolic syndrome, a prediabetic condition that also threatens your heart.

Indulge in a cup of cocoa every day.

• Add a 15 millilitres (1 tablespoon) of pure cocoa and 5 millilitres (1 teaspoon of sugar to a 250 millilitres (1 cup) of skim milk, heat and enjoy.
• Five millilitres (1 teaspoon) of sugar is a fraction of the sugar in most sodas.

• Save calories — and money — by skipping sodas at restaurants.
• This is particularly true at fast-food restaurants: get a bottle of water, not soda with your combo meal.

• Colas containing caffeine were associated with lower bone mineral density than decaf versions in one study.
• One alternative: Home-brewed iced tea, made with black tea for a little caffeinated pick-me-up.

Excluding soda from your diet is a great way to reduce your daily calories while avoiding sugar. With a little persistence, you'll notice how easy it is to avoid soda and enjoy a healthier lifestyle.