Soda is considered unhealthy for a variety of reasons, even the non-caffeinated type. It can be bad for your tooth enamel, the caffeine in some sodas can drive up your blood pressure, and with diet soda, some research has shown that it can be related to “metabolic syndrome’- a syndrome that can make it very difficult to lose weight. Other clinical studies suggest that drinking soda of any type can be bad for your bones and/or your heart. So making the decision to give it up may be a wise one indeed. In particular, there is a concern that “cola” type soda drinks - both diet and those with sugar in them - can cause or greatly contribute to osteoporosis, even among people who only have five servings of soda a week.

In a large number of clinical studies, hypnosis has been proven effective to help people break addictions to alcohol and drugs; it is a small leap from that to understanding that it can help someone break an addiction to soda.

One study showed a 77% success rate for the use of hypnosis in drug addiction. You may not think of soda as a “drug,” but the issues are very similar. (Potter, G, Intensive Therapy: Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Substance Abuse Disorders, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Jul 2004 by)

A hypnotherapist can teach you self-regulation skills, if you wish to make a change in your life like giving up soda. Self-hypnosis can enhance a sense of control. Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) can also change the way that you feel about soda so that you no longer crave it and/or so that it doesn’t matter to you anymore.

Guided imagery is another technique that is used sometimes in conjunction with NLP and hypnosis. For example, your therapist may have you visualize being in a grocery store, walking down the drinks aisle, and feeling a sense of distaste when you look at the soda bottles – and feeling a sense of victory and happiness when you pick up a bottle or carton of fruit juice.

Hypnosis can work by putting in your subconscious mind the idea that sodas are not good for you and that you no longer want them or will feel any urge toward drinking them.

Hypnosis is a safe, effective method to make needed or desired changes in life and is being used more and more by primary care doctors and other health practitioners. (Sugarman LI. Hypnosis in a primary care practice: developing skills for the "new morbidities." J Dev Behav Pediatr. 1996;17(5):300-305.)

The average American drinks about 18 ounces of sugar-laden soda per day. Even if your habit is with diet soda instead of the sugary type, it still is not good for your body.

With the help of hypnosis, NLP and/or guided imagery, you may find the habit much easier to stop than you can imagine. As these are low-cost, non-invasive, easily available therapies, it is more than reasonable to give them a try. Many people report that these therapies have gone a long way toward helping them lose weight, stop smoking, stop drinking alcohol, and make other changes in their lives which are typically considered to be difficult to make. You can’t be one of them if you don’t give these techniques a try.