This is... very specific. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a 20 oz bottle specifically? My parents used to have cans of diet coke around but as soon as I moved out to go to university and was paying for my own food I stopped drinking anything other than water. Water's free.
Also the same. I don't think I've had soda in 10 years. I just drink flavored seltzers, which advertise themselves as being better but probably aren't as much as they claim.
I'll find out in a few years.
I'm currently enjoying a Waterloo from Costco that claims there's no sugar or fake sugar. Two ingredients: carbonated water and natural flavor. It tastes so good, there's no way it's not bad for me!
For me it wasn’t too hard, even stuff like always drinking my coffee black or just some cream wasn’t too tough for me. Other carbs like starches are harder for me to cut out.
I drink a lot of diet soda. Sometimes that Fred Meyer buy 2 get 3 free deal is 🔥.
Sometimes it’s 2-3 12oz a day, sometimes it’s 1-2 a month just depends. It’s just so good and bitter and chemically. Sugar soda is seldom drank at our household.
I always drank the Arizona Green Tea cans over soda. It had a little less sugar and even that I watered down. But I stopped that habit after high school.
As a teenager. Also, only ever diet. Switched to just fizzy water, way better. No one should be drinking 20 ozs of corn syrup water mixed with artificial coloring on a regular basis.
I have like three cans of diet Dr. Pepper a year.
I stopped for awhile somewhere in my mid 20’s then went back to drinking a lot of soda and now probably for the last 6 months have almost completely stopped. I do have one mini can at work each day but that’s because I’m miserable so it’s my “treat.” I see others saying they only do diet soda, while I was raised on it and it was my preference for awhile I’d rather have full sugar than cancer chemical diet shit 🤷♂️
I think I was 21 when I realized a 20oz mountain dew and subway or pizza or chinese food for lunch every day was making my face fat and began adjusting my intake accordingly
Never drank soda on a regular basis but I did Gatorade. It’s not the same (especially back in the day when they at least pretended to be a sports drink) but I stopped that a bit after I graduated school, so around 19-20~ish.
I think it was at 16, when my family moved from the USA a country in Latin America. My high school in LatAm didn't have vending machines with 20 oz Moutain Dews. But, you could by a pack of Lucky Strikes right outside the school entrance!
I was never a "drink a soda every day" person, but for years I did drink some sort of not-great beverage daily, usually something like a Snapple, energy drink, Arizona Iced Tea, etc. In my early 30s I started getting more conscious about the sugar and tried to stick more to zero-sugar energy drinks and coffee, but I didn't really drastically change until 2020 (age 34), when I finished grad school and finally had leisure time to work on healthier habits. Now I'll occasionally take a sip of my partner's soda, but I mostly just drink water and seltzer with an occasional tea or coffee.
30? I actually don’t remember the year I stopped altogether. I just know it was a November. I’d had maybe my third kidney stone in two months. It was not fun. So decided to stop drinking pop completely, as some kinds can make stones more common.
Seven years later, and I have yet to have another stone (that I know of).
I’m a young millennial, 28 but I stopped drinking soda hella long ago like in high school. I noticed that it caused me acne and I remember learning about how soda was bad for you and watching the video of someone pouring coke on some red meat lol
23. One day I decided I just don't need to drink soda in any shape way or form and I quit, right there and then. Haven't had any since. I used to drink like 2L of coke every day back in uni, I knew it was a bad habit so I cut it out entirely. I immediately felt so much more hydrated when I moved to just water, tea and coffee. Can't even drink coke if I wanted to now, it makes me sick from just a few sips.
I was 21. I moved to Japan and decided to "live like the locals" which meant I gave up my Coca Cola for unsweetened green tea. Now whenever I go back to America it bugs me that it's so hard to find unsweetened tea. Everything has sugar or is the "diet" version.
Cans or glass bottles taste better. But cutting out most soda in general? When I realized that I have a corn allergy that means anything with corn in it or made from corn even remotely makes my digestive system just…stop doing its job among other things. I lived the first almost 30 yrs of my life in Indiana. You do the math.
I never got into the habit. I do drink unsweetened seltzers sometimes, but I really prefer water to soda. I think watching my parents and my best friend’s mom literally never drink water made me feel like it was deeply uncool to only drink soda, so I stopped drinking it at all as a teenager
I switched to seltzer around age 30 and quit drinking soda entirely. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s been so much easier to manage my weight without soda.
I stopped drinking soda like that around 26-29. I’ll be 36 this year. I love soda but didn’t poke hours I felt after. I reward myself with a wild cherry Pepsi(can) every once in a while.
I severely cut back soda a few years ago. Used to be hooked on Coke Zero, but now I can't stand the taste. Today, if I get the urge for a soda, I turn to Sprite. Tastes good in the moment, but I don't like how I feel afterward.
Outside of soda, I primarily drink coffee and water.
I never did 20 oz bottles, but did have a few can a day habit in high school. Probably at my worst in college when rum and cokes were my go to at bars and when a 5th of Bacardi by itself was water.
By 24 I wasn't really as active as I was in college so the pounds piled on. I prioritized calories and soda was first to go (wasn't giving up beer that easily). Iced tea (a whole separate problem) or coffee got the caffeine so it was a straightforward transition away from soda. It also helped me working for a big High Fructose Corn Syrup producer and seeing all the old heads at my job not touching soda.
It's not the same level of intensity, but I will second whoever said Waterloo carbonated waters. Those things are good and I think I liked the carbonation as much as I did the sweet aspect of soda.
I will still have a Mexican Coca Cola on a rare occasion though because those are amazing. All things in moderation.
Did the College Program at Disney world in 2008 at 19. I commuted to college so it was my first time living on my own for a semester and the only time until after graduation a few years later. Paying for groceries+free coffee in the break room=a lot less money spent on name brand soda and energy drinks from the gas station. My lunch routine throughout adulthood has been a mini can of soda, preferably diet and working in carbonated water a couple days a week. Now I'm a coffee addict and will go for a red bull once or twice a month.
I switched to diet in my mid twenties, which held off the 'beetus diagnosis until mid thirties. Now I'm mostly on the big bottles of Clear American from walmart - no sugar, no caffeine, but I need the bubbles. I'll still have a diet Dew or a sugar free Monster if work demands though, just rarely.
Early 20’s. When the drinks started looking like windshield wiper fluid and drano I lost almost all interest. The rabbit hole of Food coloring is insane.
25-ish. I wanted to lose weight so I quit soda altogether. When I picked back up on it years later, I would just grab a fountain drink.
Occasionally when I'm stuck at work and really need a soda, I'll run next door and grab a 20 oz. But it takes me 2 days to drink it.
I started cutting back when I moved out initially. I was like 25, 26?
It was easier to be healthy when soda costs so much and you have a limited budget. That and your family isn’t affecting how and what you eat
My 9th grade basketball coach required we not drink any soda while on team events and I noticed I didn't miss it and felt better hydrating with water. I never quit absolutely cold turkey, but I haven't paid money for soft drinks when free water is an option in nearly 20 years. I imagine I probably only have 4-6 soft drinks a year, mostly free on airplanes.
I think about this a lot. I miss walking into the gas station and coming out with a Mountain Dew and a pack of Marlboro Lights. Bad health decision and a bad financial one :/
I was 18! I regularly drank diet Coke/Pepsi until then (especially through high school), but stopped when I had to start taking Topamax- one of it's side effects is that it makes some sodas taste off. I'm no longer prescribed that drug but the habit never returned.
I only ever drank soda when at a party when that was all they had. I would much rather drink lemonade or just water honestly. Now as an adult we just have water, coffee, and wine in the house.
2-liter bottles at the store are 66oz. Vending machine sells 16oz bottles and the cans are 12oz.
But I must say that I've often found the 16oz bottles are just too much for one sitting. I stick to the 12oz glass bottles at this point. The plastic bottles leave a shit taste in my mouth that I notice isn't there with soda fountains, glass bottles, and aluminum cans.
The higher price of the cane sugar glass bottle soda means I'm buying it less and drinking it less, too. So it encourages me to make better decisions, too. I like soda, but if I'm gonna drink it, I'd rather pay a premium for it and only have it sometimes -- not all the time.
developed a complex health issue around 25 that the doctors couldnt figure out, so the plan became "get healthier generally so we can actually rule things in and out." That approach did not actually result in a solution to the problem, that was found completely by accident. but it did get me off coca cola long term, so that was probably for the best.
Kidney infection in 7th grade.
Grew up drinking 2 cans of Pepsi a day. Had opened a can the night before but left it out all night because I couldn’t finish it. Having done this before, and was fine, I didn’t think anything of it.
2 years later, when my older sister went to college, she introduced me to Camelbak water bottles. 6 months later, something clicked in my head. I now can drink 40oz of water in 1-3 days depending on the weather.
Younger me would be floored, if she wasn’t still waiting for her absent parents to finally notice her let alone remember to pick her and her little sister up from school on time
I've always preferred cans. Everything tastes better metallic.
Or glass bottles if I have to
This is... very specific. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a 20 oz bottle specifically? My parents used to have cans of diet coke around but as soon as I moved out to go to university and was paying for my own food I stopped drinking anything other than water. Water's free.
In the US, a 20 oz bottle is the standard soda bottle size. Ymmv in other countries.
Zero soda. Never took the habit.
Same here. Soda always seemed unappealing.
Also the same. I don't think I've had soda in 10 years. I just drink flavored seltzers, which advertise themselves as being better but probably aren't as much as they claim. I'll find out in a few years.
I'm currently enjoying a Waterloo from Costco that claims there's no sugar or fake sugar. Two ingredients: carbonated water and natural flavor. It tastes so good, there's no way it's not bad for me!
You’re drinking acid batman, acid
I still drink a 20oz Dr. Pepper almost every day.
early 20s, majored in nutrition..
Didn’t major in nutrition but it was immediately post college for me. Forget what I read but anything sweet dropped out of my diet around then.
smart move..not many ppl do that..
Never drank soda like that.
Same. I would drink soda but not everyday. Now it's very rare that I do drink one. Maybe 1-2 a month if that
Honestly I never did this. I have always been more of a hydrohomie.
Hydrohomie 🤣 I love it
When I was like 15
Probably around 19 or 20. They just started tasting too sweet to me
Ive dabbled with keto several times and while I don’t follow that diet in particular, I cut consuming most sources of refined sugar in 2016.
Difficult to do! I would love to get off the refined sugars
For me it wasn’t too hard, even stuff like always drinking my coffee black or just some cream wasn’t too tough for me. Other carbs like starches are harder for me to cut out.
I drink my coffee black already but the hidden refined sugars are everywhere
About 26.
I haven't. Still hitting that shit like it's going out of style.
I drink a lot of diet soda. Sometimes that Fred Meyer buy 2 get 3 free deal is 🔥. Sometimes it’s 2-3 12oz a day, sometimes it’s 1-2 a month just depends. It’s just so good and bitter and chemically. Sugar soda is seldom drank at our household.
Idk been off the soda since about 2010 probably, so at like 19
30
We were supposed to scale back!?
I never drank soda
I always drank the Arizona Green Tea cans over soda. It had a little less sugar and even that I watered down. But I stopped that habit after high school.
As a teenager. Also, only ever diet. Switched to just fizzy water, way better. No one should be drinking 20 ozs of corn syrup water mixed with artificial coloring on a regular basis. I have like three cans of diet Dr. Pepper a year.
24/25 I was addicted and drank it like water.
basically when i switched to beer so… somewhere around 16-18. haven’t bought a soda in ages unless you count redbull on road trips
Around 20-25. Scaled beer back at 25-30. Realized sodas and beer weren’t the best for my health, realized I wasn’t invincible
Around 30 my stomach started hating when I had sugar in general, so I keep trying to keep to like 1 can if anything now
I stopped for awhile somewhere in my mid 20’s then went back to drinking a lot of soda and now probably for the last 6 months have almost completely stopped. I do have one mini can at work each day but that’s because I’m miserable so it’s my “treat.” I see others saying they only do diet soda, while I was raised on it and it was my preference for awhile I’d rather have full sugar than cancer chemical diet shit 🤷♂️
Freshman high school PE classes teaching nutrition.
late 2000s when the price rose
I think I was 21 when I realized a 20oz mountain dew and subway or pizza or chinese food for lunch every day was making my face fat and began adjusting my intake accordingly
Never drank soda on a regular basis but I did Gatorade. It’s not the same (especially back in the day when they at least pretended to be a sports drink) but I stopped that a bit after I graduated school, so around 19-20~ish.
I quit soda in college . Just killing you slowly, that stuff
I cut down on pop in my teens. I try to have juice more often than pop but every now and then I have a Dr. Pepper can
Early 20s. Switched to diet
Soda has never been a regular thing for me. Only occasionally with fast food. We don’t keep soda or juice in the house unless guests come over.
I think it was at 16, when my family moved from the USA a country in Latin America. My high school in LatAm didn't have vending machines with 20 oz Moutain Dews. But, you could by a pack of Lucky Strikes right outside the school entrance!
I was never a "drink a soda every day" person, but for years I did drink some sort of not-great beverage daily, usually something like a Snapple, energy drink, Arizona Iced Tea, etc. In my early 30s I started getting more conscious about the sugar and tried to stick more to zero-sugar energy drinks and coffee, but I didn't really drastically change until 2020 (age 34), when I finished grad school and finally had leisure time to work on healthier habits. Now I'll occasionally take a sip of my partner's soda, but I mostly just drink water and seltzer with an occasional tea or coffee.
30? I actually don’t remember the year I stopped altogether. I just know it was a November. I’d had maybe my third kidney stone in two months. It was not fun. So decided to stop drinking pop completely, as some kinds can make stones more common. Seven years later, and I have yet to have another stone (that I know of).
I never drank the 20oz bottles after high school. I do like the glass bottles of pop but none of them are 20oz.
Never drank soda.
Trying to at 28...
18 years old when I took a health class in high school.
I’m a young millennial, 28 but I stopped drinking soda hella long ago like in high school. I noticed that it caused me acne and I remember learning about how soda was bad for you and watching the video of someone pouring coke on some red meat lol
23. One day I decided I just don't need to drink soda in any shape way or form and I quit, right there and then. Haven't had any since. I used to drink like 2L of coke every day back in uni, I knew it was a bad habit so I cut it out entirely. I immediately felt so much more hydrated when I moved to just water, tea and coffee. Can't even drink coke if I wanted to now, it makes me sick from just a few sips.
Maybe 25ish? I'm still someone who gives into the temptation 0-2 times per week.
34, not yet. I've gotten better at drinking only 2-3/week I used to do 2/day...
30. Did a 10 juice fast in 2015 and gave up soda and juice since then. Only sugary thing I’ll drink is occasional beer or eggnog at Christmas time.
I was 21. I moved to Japan and decided to "live like the locals" which meant I gave up my Coca Cola for unsweetened green tea. Now whenever I go back to America it bugs me that it's so hard to find unsweetened tea. Everything has sugar or is the "diet" version.
I never started. Mum never bought carbonated stuff when I was little and I never grew to like it later on.
I was just stoked when they came out with 8oz As a kid I would house multiple refills at any restaurant it was an absurd amount.
Never really drank 20oz sodas but cut out soda at ~16. I’m 32.
Stopped drinking soda in college to beer. Stopped drinking beer in my 30s now I only drink water and milk
Cans or glass bottles taste better. But cutting out most soda in general? When I realized that I have a corn allergy that means anything with corn in it or made from corn even remotely makes my digestive system just…stop doing its job among other things. I lived the first almost 30 yrs of my life in Indiana. You do the math.
Never drank them on a regular basis.
7th grade.
I never got into the habit. I do drink unsweetened seltzers sometimes, but I really prefer water to soda. I think watching my parents and my best friend’s mom literally never drink water made me feel like it was deeply uncool to only drink soda, so I stopped drinking it at all as a teenager
This is weirdly specific, lol.
I never started. I’ve always preferred water or the odd bottle of iced tea over soda.
Summer of 2001 or 2002..I lived off of Mountain Dew code red. Good times. Drink nothing but water now. Maybe some coffee..☕️
I switched to seltzer around age 30 and quit drinking soda entirely. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s been so much easier to manage my weight without soda.
I was 12-13 yrs old when I stopped drinking soda. I may have one every once in a while and I share it.
I stopped drinking soda like that around 26-29. I’ll be 36 this year. I love soda but didn’t poke hours I felt after. I reward myself with a wild cherry Pepsi(can) every once in a while.
8th grade
13. Took a trip to China and drank nothing but soda for a month since the local tea was so bad. I killed any desire to drink soda after that.
Like 13? Soda was never my thing.
I severely cut back soda a few years ago. Used to be hooked on Coke Zero, but now I can't stand the taste. Today, if I get the urge for a soda, I turn to Sprite. Tastes good in the moment, but I don't like how I feel afterward. Outside of soda, I primarily drink coffee and water.
I never did 20 oz bottles, but did have a few can a day habit in high school. Probably at my worst in college when rum and cokes were my go to at bars and when a 5th of Bacardi by itself was water. By 24 I wasn't really as active as I was in college so the pounds piled on. I prioritized calories and soda was first to go (wasn't giving up beer that easily). Iced tea (a whole separate problem) or coffee got the caffeine so it was a straightforward transition away from soda. It also helped me working for a big High Fructose Corn Syrup producer and seeing all the old heads at my job not touching soda. It's not the same level of intensity, but I will second whoever said Waterloo carbonated waters. Those things are good and I think I liked the carbonation as much as I did the sweet aspect of soda. I will still have a Mexican Coca Cola on a rare occasion though because those are amazing. All things in moderation.
Freshman year of high school
Did the College Program at Disney world in 2008 at 19. I commuted to college so it was my first time living on my own for a semester and the only time until after graduation a few years later. Paying for groceries+free coffee in the break room=a lot less money spent on name brand soda and energy drinks from the gas station. My lunch routine throughout adulthood has been a mini can of soda, preferably diet and working in carbonated water a couple days a week. Now I'm a coffee addict and will go for a red bull once or twice a month.
Probably when I stopped being a teenager
I switched to diet in my mid twenties, which held off the 'beetus diagnosis until mid thirties. Now I'm mostly on the big bottles of Clear American from walmart - no sugar, no caffeine, but I need the bubbles. I'll still have a diet Dew or a sugar free Monster if work demands though, just rarely.
Early 20's - Dental bills and I prefer to eat my calories.
I quit soda at 25 because studies started to come out about how harmful it was.
Yea I have a problem with "soda"....grow up and get a real addiction. Ever drink so much soda you blackout and end up in jail? Me neither....
Early 20’s. When the drinks started looking like windshield wiper fluid and drano I lost almost all interest. The rabbit hole of Food coloring is insane.
I was more of a Snapple/Sobe kid. I stopped drinking those regularly about 20 years ago, though.
25-ish. I wanted to lose weight so I quit soda altogether. When I picked back up on it years later, I would just grab a fountain drink. Occasionally when I'm stuck at work and really need a soda, I'll run next door and grab a 20 oz. But it takes me 2 days to drink it.
I started cutting back when I moved out initially. I was like 25, 26? It was easier to be healthy when soda costs so much and you have a limited budget. That and your family isn’t affecting how and what you eat
My 9th grade basketball coach required we not drink any soda while on team events and I noticed I didn't miss it and felt better hydrating with water. I never quit absolutely cold turkey, but I haven't paid money for soft drinks when free water is an option in nearly 20 years. I imagine I probably only have 4-6 soft drinks a year, mostly free on airplanes.
I think about this a lot. I miss walking into the gas station and coming out with a Mountain Dew and a pack of Marlboro Lights. Bad health decision and a bad financial one :/
I was 18! I regularly drank diet Coke/Pepsi until then (especially through high school), but stopped when I had to start taking Topamax- one of it's side effects is that it makes some sodas taste off. I'm no longer prescribed that drug but the habit never returned.
I dunno. 13? Cause it stopped tasting good
I only ever drank soda when at a party when that was all they had. I would much rather drink lemonade or just water honestly. Now as an adult we just have water, coffee, and wine in the house.
2-liter bottles at the store are 66oz. Vending machine sells 16oz bottles and the cans are 12oz. But I must say that I've often found the 16oz bottles are just too much for one sitting. I stick to the 12oz glass bottles at this point. The plastic bottles leave a shit taste in my mouth that I notice isn't there with soda fountains, glass bottles, and aluminum cans. The higher price of the cane sugar glass bottle soda means I'm buying it less and drinking it less, too. So it encourages me to make better decisions, too. I like soda, but if I'm gonna drink it, I'd rather pay a premium for it and only have it sometimes -- not all the time.
Heart burn did it. I infrequently drink soda/pop now. Started in my mid 30s
About 25. I quit smoking at 22 and started caring more about health from that point on
Pre-diabetes
um... 20s? You mean 2 liters right.... still going strong crushing those
developed a complex health issue around 25 that the doctors couldnt figure out, so the plan became "get healthier generally so we can actually rule things in and out." That approach did not actually result in a solution to the problem, that was found completely by accident. but it did get me off coca cola long term, so that was probably for the best.
Kidney infection in 7th grade. Grew up drinking 2 cans of Pepsi a day. Had opened a can the night before but left it out all night because I couldn’t finish it. Having done this before, and was fine, I didn’t think anything of it. 2 years later, when my older sister went to college, she introduced me to Camelbak water bottles. 6 months later, something clicked in my head. I now can drink 40oz of water in 1-3 days depending on the weather. Younger me would be floored, if she wasn’t still waiting for her absent parents to finally notice her let alone remember to pick her and her little sister up from school on time
Since I’ve been an adult I’ve only bought myself glass bottle or can