# 0% alternatives - Opinions on using them?
**URL:** https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986
**Category:** Life in Recovery
**Tags:** alcohol, non-alcoholic-drinks, sobriety
**Created:** [October 16, 2026, 10:21am UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986 "2026-10-16T10:21:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@TrustyBird](https://talkingsober.com/u/TrustyBird)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/21 "2026-10-16T16:36:46Z")
Not worth the calories. I will drink an N/A if I’m offered one, most of my friends buy me an N/A beer option if they are hosting. It’s bloat and extra calories without all of the alcohol.
I find if I rely on them my waistline shows the effects. I was sometimes in it for the taste but I was always in it for the alcohol.
I don’t find them triggering but they were a bit too close for comfort in my early sober days. I’d say use with caution.
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### Author:  [@Techno\_Tequila](https://talkingsober.com/u/Techno_Tequila)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/22 "2026-10-16T17:38:00Z")
Don’t come for my fruit, I’ll fight them for kiwi and mango. 😆
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### Author:  [@Techno\_Tequila](https://talkingsober.com/u/Techno_Tequila)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/23 "2026-10-16T17:38:39Z")
I did not know this. Thanks for sharing🤩
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### Author:  [@Techno\_Tequila](https://talkingsober.com/u/Techno_Tequila)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 5:42pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/24 "2026-10-16T17:42:15Z")
Shandy Bass 😂 I remember that. At Christmas I’d have two Babychams and I’d be giggling away 🫠
I agree with your last point. Whatever is stopping you from doing the real deal then crack on.
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### Author:  [@Techno\_Tequila](https://talkingsober.com/u/Techno_Tequila)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 5:44pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/25 "2026-10-16T17:44:31Z")
Yeah the calories and payoff just aren’t all that are they. Also, as you say, I actually didn’t _really_ like the taste. It was more a conditioned taste. I just wanted the oblivion. So this makes 0% even more pointless for me!!
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### Author:  [@Leveller](https://talkingsober.com/u/Leveller)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/26 "2026-10-16T17:57:57Z")
For 0% alternatives, my go-to drink is fresh orange juice and diet lemonade, or some other fruit juice with diet lemonade; I love it, especially in summer with loads of ice—fantastic! While on holiday, for the sake of my wife not feeling like she was drinking alone, I had a few mocktails; they were good for photographs but honestly were far too sweet for me and, frankly, a waste of money, as they were around the same price as cocktails. She coaxed me onto 0.0% Mahou (I think that’s the right spelling) and I think I ended up having three or four over the week. They were just half-pint bottles served ice-cold, and the great thing was I didn’t think I must have another one of those, and it certainly never made me want to try a normal beer again. I said I would get a few to keep in the house when we got back; that was in August, and I’ve still not bothered. I’m on tropical fruit juice and diet lemonade as I write this.
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### Author:  [@HoofHearted](https://talkingsober.com/u/HoofHearted)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/27 "2026-10-16T18:01:25Z")
I tried quitting once where I drank N/A and I’d bring them to parties, I’d drink them at the bars, I’d chug 'em during football. I thought I found a sobriety hack, I could do all the things I did while drinking, but I wasn’t getting drunk.
And that was the fundamental problem, my behavior and mentality didn’t change, only my habits. Eventually, while at a party I ran out of NA and I started drinking.
My current quit, I went 8 years before having an NA and I wish I hadn’t. Even after all that time, it felt like waking a sleeping giant. It was a dangerous game and one I won’t play again.
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### Author:  [@PinkFirefly](https://talkingsober.com/u/PinkFirefly)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://talkingsober.com/t/0-alternatives-opinions-on-using-them/210986/28 "2026-10-17T00:00:53Z")
I do occasionally have an NA beer with our Friday night pizza. I like that flavor combo. I sometimes don’t even finish it and never want more than one. People say you don’t drink for the taste only the buzz but I did enjoy the taste of certain drinks. Sometimes at brunch I will have a virgin bloody mary which is truly a 0% drink because there is no vodka in it.
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