> Then decided that was probably just as bad, and now drink sparkling water.

Heh that's usually what gets everybody who visits Germany for the first time: what's with Germans and that sparkling water? I never realized it isn't really a thing in most parts of the world.

And it seems pretty divisive to folks visiting from outside Europe. Some think it's disgusting, some get used to it after a while and like it.

I drink both, plain water and sparkling water. Sometimes I feel the urge to have something more than just water, especially in the summer returning home and being really thirsty, and usually sparkling water is enough to fool my senses. So depending on where you are, maybe you wanna try it for some time if you're trying to get off coke or other soda.

I quit consuming protein powder, too. I can't find a brand that is just protein powder, without any sweetener of any sort, even at health nut stores. I switched to eating boiled eggs instead.

Unflavoured whey protein isolate isn't hugely popular but you can get it online.

US: https://nutricost.com/collections/protein/products/nutricost...

AU: https://www.bulknutrients.com.au/products/whey-protein-isola...

edit - I should add, you can get a bit of an idea of the quality of the protein powder by just looking at the percentage of protein in it. Nutricost is 85% and Bulk Nutrients is 87%. Doesn't leave much room to shove other ingredients in with protein levels that high.

You can also go buy 20kg bags of WPI from NZ (which is where I think most of these retail products get their WPI from) https://www.nzmp.com/global/en/products/ingredients/types/pr...

What’s the price on those bags? I’m not contacting them and hidden pricing is scummy.

I think you have to bid on their auctions. It is more of a wholesale thing for people buying tons of it. https://pure-product.com/products/whey-protein-isolate-20kg-... they are reselling one for $709 USD

I think it helps to look for protein powder meant to be incorporated into other things (as opposed to ones you mix with milk and drink directly).

[1] Quest brand: https://www.questnutrition.com/collections/protein-powders/p...

[2] essentially powdered egg whites are easy to find, for example: https://www.amazon.com/Its-Just-Protein-Non-GMO-Unflavored/d...

For unflavored protein powder I like the Naked brand: https://nakednutrition.com

I too ran into that issue as I nearly cut all sugar from my life since 6 months. As the other pointed out, here is my alternative, which is great [0]! I once drank it raw, it was terrible. But usually I blend it with the European version of Soylent powder and then it tastes amazing. 1. https://www.natureletics.de/products/natureletics-pure-natur...

Talk about timing--I was literally downing a glass of this as I was reading your comment:

https://canadianprotein.com/products/bulk-grass-fed-new-zeal...

They ship to the US for free, too.

You can't find a brand because people don't buy it because it tastes awful.

OWN Brand protein drinks are what I drink.

That's surprising, my local upscale supermarket even has like multiple brands of plain whey protein. I'd probably just order it online then. I like to mix it sometimes with cocoa powder, then just more or less chug it lol

Read the ingredients closely. Sometimes, the sweetener has a chemical name you won't recognize.

Difficulty finding it could just be where you live? Every supplement shop within 50 miles of me (of which there are only 4) has an unflavored, unsweetened protein. And, if I type "unflavored unsweetened whey protein isolate" into amazon, there's 30 bags for me to choose from. I randomly clicked on 5 of the first page results, and none of them had a sweetener on their nutrition facts/ingredient list.

My go to: https://www.raworganicwhey.com/

One that's easy to find in stores is "collagen peptides", I add them to oatmeal, pretty good. And to echo a sibling comment, unflavored whey protein is harder to find, but it's out there, one of my grocers stocks it.

I drink Orgain which I buy from Costco (the regular 20g one, not a fan of their “plant based one” or 30g one.) It uses monk fruit as a sweetener instead of sugar.

NOW has unflavored protein produced in a GMP-certified facility. You can also buy protein powder directly from dairy farms, which is helpful when there's a shortage/price-spike - I've bought from Dana farms. It's also significantly more fresh and tasteless. Buying from Dana Farms you can either buy it with a small amount of emulsifier to help it dissolve in water or just single-ingredient pure without that.

If purity is particularly important to you I'd recommend "isolate" over "concentrate", it will have even lower amounts of lactose, which can benefit people who are severely lactose-intolerant.

You could use Kefir to make your own whey protein. You use milk but the Kefir actually eats the sugar in the milk and the whey ends up separated from the fat.

Pretty good stuff :)

Yeah, I ran into a similar issue. I mostly use Isopure now. They have an unflavored variant. I usually blend it with frozen berries and fresh veggies.

I have a similar story, used to drink a litre of coke every couple of days when I was 15. At some point I decided I didn't want that life any more and quit. It's been several years now and I still can't stand the taste of coke. It just tastes so artificial with an awful after taste; and I've never really had a sweet tooth anyway.

Just regular ol' water is eternal

To satisfy my need for chocolate, I buy cacau nibs (raw chocolate).

Once I realized I only liked soft drinks because of the carbonation, it was easy to switch to seltzer water. Now not only can I not stand most sugary drinks, I've almost entirely lost my sweet-tooth for everything. I basically only drink water, coffee, and whiskey in various proportions but mostly water. A little cream in the coffee.

I'm still ok with honey, and every once in a while I have a hankering for a single scoop of ice cream or custard.

A few times a year I get a migraine or super bad headache. A can of coke, when you don't ever drink it otherwise, is super effective against headaches.

Sparkling water is also bad, albeit significantly less so.

The carbonation makes it acidic which is one of the two elements that makes carbonated soft drinks the best way to rot out all of your teeth as quickly as possible (the other element is the copious amounts of refined, simple sugar).

Nothing beats plain old water, except maybe tea.

It's a similar journey to quitting smoking