Soft Drinks.. Obesity ... Sugar substitutes

This is a great article to read and it gave me the opportunity to comment on thoughts regarding this topic. I also believe soft drinks are also directly correlated to the increasing incidence of type II diabetes and metabolic disorder that we are seeing today. Rule of thumb for you soft drink drinkers

1. Go Clear where possible: avoiding some of the coloring agents and additional calories and sugars is nice although I am not sure you are thinking about this when you drink soda anyway
2. Don't go diet: All that sugar you are avoiding is being replaced by chemicals, preservatives and artificial sweeteners that are worse than the original things you were trying to avoid.
3. As an alternative, try combining a juice drink and carbonated water or tonic water to replace the soda that you are trying to quit.
4. Make a demand on yourself that you are not allowed to drink another soda until you have had at least 16 ounces of water. This will do a few things. One, fill your stomach which will give you a sensation of fullness and decrease your food intake which will hopefully decrease weight. Two, will decrease the total number of cans of soda or glasses you have during the day.
5. Have snacks at snack time and drink sodas with meals.
6. There are only two sweetners I would consider using besides sugar. I have included links to them below.

Stevia and Sugar in the Raw