Thoughts on Crystal Light?

I drink plain water. I stay away from beverages treated with chemicals (aka artificial sweeteners) or sugar. I also like to make pitchers of herbal tea (e.g. Hibiscus & Passion Fruit).

I would prefer to stay away, but I can't seem to stomach water without it right now.

May I ask why you stay away from it?

drinking a quart of it right now. I used to love plain ice water pre-surgery, and I still like it when I'm at a restaurant, but I almost always drink CL now.

I make a half gallon of Crystal Light lemonade every morning and drink it by the next day. I drink lots of ice water too. I have been doing that for ten years and don't have any problems with it. No hunger or brain fog.

I make sure I do 80 oz of water each day. From there, I usually need something else so I hit the Crystal Light, too. I usually do 32 or so oz a day. I drink the Sweat Tea. That's the only one I can stand. Be warned, the taste is ULTRA addicting. :)

I get mine on Amazon (sometimes you can find it at Target): https://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Light-Sweet-packets-FLAVOR/dp /B00IFR5JVK

I've been using mostly Crystal Light with extra water added to make it weaker for 5 years now. Plain water upsets my stomach as do cold beverages. For some reason my pouch prefers room temp or warm beverages. I don't have any issues with hunger or any other side effects. If I had to do without I'd never get my liquids in.

There are actual medical reasons why plain water can make you feel ill, and as Kat said, it has to do with surface tension. Changing the temperature can change the surface tension, often enough to make it palatable. Sometimes not. Adding something like Mio or Crystal Light, or drinking something like tea or Powerade Zero, can help a lot more.

The consequences of drinking too little are clear. The consequences of artificial sweeteners, in general, are still highly debated. I have no issue with them myself, and consume far more than most lab rats.

If it helps you drink, go for it.

I have to LOL because my FB "on this day" was reminding me about a rant I made a year ago.

My sis had the surgery (sleeve) a few years before I did, and even though I'm an RN and I make sure I'm very well educated about anything medically I'm having done, she is my older sis and feels the need to lecture me, even if she doesn't really understand what she's talking about.

She had gotten the recommendation to use Mio drops or whatever to help make water more tolerable from another support group. I don't know if that support group didn't know what they were talking about, or if my sis misunderstood. It could be either/both/combination. But regardless of where the error came from, my sis was absolutely INSISTENT that it had to do with changing the pH of the water and that Mio drops would do it.

Now, if it was actual lemon juice, I could almost see the argument. But Mio/Crystal Light??

I finally emailed my ex-sis-in-law who has a PhD in chemistry to ask her if there was any chance in seven hells that a squirt of Mio was going to change the pH to any real degree of a bottle/glass of 20+ oz of water, given that there's no actual lemon juice (sis swore only lemon would work) in the stuff, which was pretty much the only way I could see that it could impact pH in any significant way. She said that it was an interesting thought process to think how much Mio it would take, since there's an extremely tiny bit of citric acid in it, but she was fairly certain most people would consider it undrinkable to get it to that point. She wasn't certain what mechanism it might be that made flavored water easier to get down, but was pretty certain it wasn't pH changes, at least with Mio. She agreed that actual lemon juice might alter the pH to a measurable extent, but wasn't sure how much pH change would be needed to affect a change in tolerance, and how much lemon juice you'd need to add to get there.

I shared all of that with my sis, who INSISTED that I just didn't understand and neither did my ex-SIL with her Chemistry PhD, because SHE got the information directly from the leader of the group, and that person is blessed with all knowledge about WLS and nutrition apparently.

Bless her heart.

I hate water !!! I add sf grape flavoring. CL makes me sick too but hey whatever works.

Sugar Free Crystal Light was on my list of liquids I could have. I do know that some of the people in my support group also use Mio liquid water enhancers. They are also sugar free. If you're having issues with nausea, talk to your surgeon. He can give you something for that. Have you tried adding fresh squeezed lemon juice or slices of cucumbers.