Tonic water

(Brian) #1

I have heard a few people mention using tonic water, which contains quinine, for a little “boost” in fighting off covid. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, works or doesn’t work.

What I was interested in was that I have yet to find a tonic water on the shelves of my local stores that I’d really want to drink. It seems there are two choices, regular tonic water and diet tonic water. Regular tonic water has copious amounts of sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup. Not only is that not keto, I just don’t want to ingest a bunch of sugar. Diet tonic water seems to be filled with all kinds of nasty chemicals that I can’t even pronounce, usually including aspartame. I’m just not that enthused about consuming those either.

So, if I wanted to use tonic water, at least theoretically, is there a “better of the evils”? Or is there a particular brand that’s better than another?

I’ll say again, it’s theoretical. But I do know of a few people using their own protocol with tonic water as a part of it. So I wondered.

(Rebecca ) #2

Hello. I work at a Health Food store and we do carry a tonic water made by Zevia that is sweetened with Stevia.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

I’d go with the artificially sweetened tonic water with the least amount of chemicals. Quinine is a very bitter alkaloid, so you need something to counteract the taste.

If you search teh Interwebz, you will find that aspartame is (a) the Devil’s work, and deadly toxic, and (b) perfectly harmless and a boon to the human race. Everyone will cite “scientific” evidence to support each point of view. At this point, I don’t know whose study to trust.

What can be said for sure is that aspartame is a chemical that occurs in nature, so it’s not artificial. One place it occurs is in asparagus, hence the chemical name.

(Brian) #4

PaulL, I had never made that connection… aspartame - asparagus. Interesting. Not that I intend to start pourin’ the aspartame down the ol’ pie hole. LOL!! But that’s interesting.

Yup, quinine is definitely bitter, I’ve had several different tonic water brands, both regular and diet. So I definitely get why they wanna sweeten it.

Rebecca, I would love to find some of that Zevia. The occasional “soft drink” that we have is almost always a Zevia of some kind so I’m familiar with the brand. I have never seen their tonic water, though. I suspect they could be selling a lot of it right now. (Or maybe they are, just not here.)

Anyway, thanks for the input! I appreciate the replies. :slight_smile:

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #5

Make it yourself from cinchona bark powder.

(Brian) #6

Michael, thanks for sharing! Quite the interesting experiment. :slight_smile:

closed #7