Diet Coke … for pregnant chicks!
It’s no secret that throughout this pregnancy, I have been missing my #1 fave drink — Diet Coke.
Like really missing it.
I have always drank Diet Coke, even when I was a kid — don’t judge my ‘rents, it was just what we had in the house. Regular pop has always tasted like pancake syrup to me in comparison, so I’ve been happily chugging DCs for more than 15 years.
And then …
… I got knocked up …
… and quit it cold-turkey …
I’m a firm believer in not messing around with stuff that could hurt a baby, even if it’s a small chance, so I’ve been a stickler about not touching the stuff. Along with not dyeing my hair, not eating cookie dough, overcooking my eggs — all the good paranoid preggo behavior.
So while I’ve been a brave little solider, I have missed it. Dearly. Cutting out caffeine and aspartame means no dark pop at all — not even orange! — and that means I’ve been left with 7Up, Sprite and Ginger Ale. Yawn.
After 9 or 10 weeks of chaste living, I started to feel desperate. I sent Darling Husband on a mission for caffeine-free regular Coke — which HELLO, totally used to exist like 10 years ago or something, but apparently does not anymore.
Being the totally reasonable crazy person that I am, I was convinced he just wasn’t looking hard enough. I accompanied him to the grocery store and scanned those shelves like my life depended on it. Sure enough, caffeine-free Coke did not exist anymore.
I was in the middle of apologizing — to Darling Husband’s delight — when something caught my eye …
A silver, black and red case of STORE-BRAND pop that announced itself as having no aspartame or caffeine. I grabbed it with a little squeal and may or may not have danced right there in the aisle.
Ladies, I am proud to introduce … Cola Freedom:
It has … drumroll, please:
- No sugar
- No sodium
- No calories
- No fat
- No aspartame
- No caffeine
Full ingredients:
- Carbonated water
- Colour
- Natural flavour
- Phosphoric acid
- Citric acid
- Sucralose (proven safe for preggos by the FDA)
- Potassium benzoate
- Acesulfame-potassium (also proven to be safe)
- Potassium citrate
How does it taste? Well, kind of like Diet Pepsi, actually. I was so excited that first night, to be drinking “mock-Diet Coke,” that I almost didn’t care what it tasted like.
Once the excitement wore off, I realized that while Cola Freedom is a nice subtitute, it’s probably not that much better for me than caffeine-free Diet Coke.
Even though the ingredients seem OK, I’m definitely not going to be drinking a lot of it. Artificial sweeteners in general are not the best idea while pregnant– even though sucralose seems to be less risky than aspartame — so I’ve only had two cans (spread over the week that it’s been in my fridge).
Still, it’s a good substitute to have on hand for when those Diet Coke pangs are too much to bear!
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Heather's Handmade Life 