The Soft Drink Belly Diet

Yes, fizzy drinks are expanding your waistline, destroying your health and rushing you toward an early death. No, switching to diet won’t work either. Here’s how to finally quit your habit for good.

- Michael Freidson

Everyone wants that one life-changing moment. I had mine three years ago. No, my wife didn’t leave me. I didn’t win the Powerball and quit my job. My life-changing moment had to do with something seemingly insignificant, something that might be in your fridge right now: soft drink. Giving up the fizzy stuff changed my life. In fact, I’m convinced that quitting soft drink extended my life, shrank my waistline and made me happier. You maybe already know soft drink is bad for you, but you might not know just how bad. Either way, that’s not the same as giving it up for good. As a kid in the 1980s, I grew up in the suburbs with a fridge full of Welch’s grape soda. I drank Orange Crush, Mello Yello, Dr Pepper and the rest of the brightly hued, syrup sweetened rainbow.

My drinking habit continued into uni, where I powered through hangovers and all-nighters not with coffee but with Diet Coke, and slept with 2-litre bottles of orange fizzy drink by my bed in case I needed a nighttime nip.

One of my happiest days, besides the birth of my child, was the introduction of Coke Zero, a kilojoule-free beverage that tasted like the real thing – in a cool black can, marketed toward men. Sold! (Soft drink manufacturers want you to think that some varieties are healthier for you than others. They’re not. More on that later.)

Too ashamed to keep 2-litres by the bed after I married, I had cases of cans delivered to my work office. I bought myself a Coca-Cola mini-fridge (and one for an employee). And if you Google Image-search my name, you’ll find a photo of me at my desk with a 2-litre bottle of Diet Coke and a can next to it.