[zaroth]

One personal observation I can make about my own journey... there are foods that I never would have touched 10 years ago that today I find enjoyable and foods that have become more palatable and even decent over time.

I was never a “salad person”. Now there are several salads that I enjoy. I would never touch beans, now I recently found I can sub them for rice in some dishes and still enjoy it.

This is something that happened over years of trying to eat better. There are little things you may find hit more quickly but the macro stuff just takes time.

For example, cutting out soda completely for a month. Not even diet soda. Just find something else to drink, ideally which isn’t fizzy. It’s a relatively small ask as far as “diets” go. After a month or two, you may go back to taste a soda and wonder how the heck you ever liked it.

There are diets which focus on deprivation. And if you actively trying to cut fat then you will need to be in a deficit and you will feel hungry.

But there is also the long term “diet” of just trying to eat better and the good news is that the more you eat healthier foods (e.g. lower sugar) the more your palate will adapt and you will eventually find the sweeter things too sweet and the less sweet things more pleasing. Which makes the whole thing much more sustainable.

[sooper]

I'm curious, when you say "Just find something else to drink, ideally which isn’t fizzy", do you include fizzy water?

I only ask as I bought a sodastream machine after realising what I liked most about soda was the fizz - I actively disliked the sweetness. Now I drink around 3 litres of fizzed water a day and haven't looked back.

[zaroth]

I think whatever works as a substitute as long as it helps keep you away from the sweetened drinks (artificially or otherwise) is a win. For non-diet sweetener the 150 calories is basically burning the majority of any deficit you might have had that day, and if it's artificial sweetener... well two things;

1) I'm just paranoid what that could be doing to your gut bacteria,

2) It's keeping your taste buds acclimated to that hardcore sweet flavor (sucrose), which is something you have to train yourself off of, in my experience, to increase your sensitivity to the natural sweet which comes in the healthier options.

[JMTQp8lwXL]

It might be different for a person who was drinking a liter of soda daily. As someone who never drank a lot of soda, I switched to carbonated water when I wanted something more, but didn't want sugar. My significant other (who regularly drinks soda) says carbonated water just tastes "bitter".

[itchyouch]

It is definitely acquired. I got some Pellegrino but it was bitter, but I had a case to kill, so I drank it anyway. All of a u sudden, it stopped being bitter, and became refreshing.