My Favorite Natural Soda Recipe: Homemade Sprite

Do you love soda? I get it. There's something about that carbonation and flavor that's hard to beat. I used to love sodas like 7-Up and Sprite, but once I started reading the ingredients, I realized they were holding me back from losing weight.

What's Really in Your Soda?

The first thing you see on most soda labels is high fructose corn syrup, which is one of the leading causes of obesity in America. But that's just the beginning.

You'll also find citric acid. Did you know that citric acid is actually derived from black mold? While there is a form naturally found in citrus fruits like lemons and limes, most of the citric acid used in food and drink products is synthetic, made from a fermentation process using a specific strain of black mold.

Then there are "natural flavors", which aren't natural at all. They're engineered to make you crave more, keeping you coming back for another sip. Plus a bunch of other chemical names most of us can't even pronounce.

I stopped drinking soda not just because I wanted to lose weight, but because I started caring for myself more than I loved the way soda tasted. Instead of giving up soda completely, I decided to make it at home. And honestly, it's so much better.

How to Make Natural Homemade Sprite

All you need are a few simple ingredients your body can actually recognize:

• ½ of a lemon
• ½ of a lime
• ½ tbsp of pure agave syrup (adjust to taste)
• 8 oz of carbonated spring water
• Ice

Here's how to make it:

• Juice the lemon and lime into a glass
• Add the agave syrup and stir until it dissolves
• Add the ice
• Top with carbonated water, stir, taste, and adjust sweetness or tartness as you like

That's it! And I promise you, it tastes even better than 7-Up or Sprite. Once you try this, you’ll never go back to the store-bought stuff.

Small Swaps, Big Results

This is an example of how I lost 100 pounds while still drinking what I like to drink and eating what I like to eat. It's all about cutting out the unnatural versions of foods and drinks and choosing things with ingredients our bodies can recognize instead. I had to learn how to choose the right versions of the things I already loved. That's the Naturalite lifestyle.

If you have a goal to lose weight, our books will help! I wrote my book, Life Matters So Let's Eat Like It to explain the approach that changed my life and can help you make eating all-natural and achieving your natural body size a reality.

And for more cooking inspiration, be sure to check out The Naturalite Family Cookbook for 62 easy, all-natural recipes to help you on your weight loss journey.