Give up soda?

Gasp! How dare anyone suggest that I should give up soda! After all, when I started the Atkins diet a few years ago, I switched from "bad" suggary regular soda to "good" diet soda. What more do you want? Well, here is a reason to give up soda entirely: Coke and Pepsi are banned in parts of India for containing too much pesticide. Coke and Pepsi vociferously deny these allegations, of course, but this is the second time an outside organization has tested these soft drinks and found dangerous levels of multiple pesticides. It seems to me an easy matter for Coke and Pepsi to refute the allegations by testing the same samples the outside organization tested and show their results. I gave up soda about a year ago. I sometimes drink selzer water or club soda, but for the most part I drink filtered water or bottled water. For variety, I sometimes mix in lemon juice and/or cranberry juice with stevia as a sweetener. For those of you who believe you can't live without soda, my experience quitting wasn't bad at all. I don't miss it. I don't crave it. I enjoy myself just as much drinking water as I did drinking soda. It was easy to transition, and I hate the taste of soda now. Give it a try. Replace your cans of soda with selzer or juice, get a water filter for your home (I bought a water filter pitcher for about $20), and try living without the potential danger of pesticides in what you drink.