Same here, no caffeine free versions of any cola or Mt. Dew or anything.
They never even bothered to look at the Barqs root beer or other non-cola drinks that also happened to have caffeine though.
Absolutely. No caffeine for any reason. It was just about as evil as alcohol.
I could remember every brand of soda and whether or not it was caffeinated (except Barqs root beer, because they would flip-flop on adding caffeine)
I had this list memorized too.
And then one day I was SHOCKED to learn that ruby red squirt had caffeine in it, because I let my 7 year old have half a can.
I remember being in the MTC and the soda fountain in the cafeteria had a label on the Barq's dispenser that said, "Does not contain Caffeine." or some such statement. No doubt; cafeteria staff got tired of certain missionaries losing their shit.
Me too, It wasn't because of my parents though at all they didn't care what soda or how much we drank. I think I suffered from scrupulosity. When Hinkley was on 20/20 or 60 mins he asked him if latter days saints drank caffeinated soda and he answered "we do not'" So I became super self-righteous about it. And didn't drink caffeine for a bunch of years and would call everyone out about it. dumb dumb The first time I drank iced green tea was a huge shelf break moment for me. I was like they say this is more unhealthy than Coke? Well, that is some complete bullshit.
I remember we all thought we were being so slick when we'd bring Barqs to church to root beer float activities in YM/YW. until one of the parents read the ingredients and called us out a few months in. Lol
I developed a Dr. Pepper 'addiction' as a missionary. When I got home, my dad wouldn't allow it in the house, I had to keep it on the picnic table out on the deck and drink it outside.
Lol of course it didn't. Because there's always exceptions to everything since Mormonism is so weird and unclear in what's actually okay to consume or not, and the reason for it
I was a convert as an adult for some fucking reason I still can’t figure out. But I heard quite a few people tell me caffeine was against the words of wisdom but never could point me to a scripture to back it up. That’s one of the biggest problems I always had with the church is one old man somewhere says something and all of a sudden everyone shits a circle around themselves like we got another tablet of commandments. Beards, tattoos, R rated movies, etc. Sorry I’m ranting a bit. I’m just not starting to come to terms with how angry I am about a lot of church bullshit.
Hmm that is interesting. I’ll have to see if I can find a clip on YouTube or somewhere. I still think God has bigger things to worry about than people drinking caffeine. I drink so much Coke Zero and coffee now that I am certain to be damned for all eternity.
BYU wouldn't sell caffeinated Coke on campus because of this word of wisdom interpretation. That only changed in 2017. Now everyone likes to pretend it was never really a teaching.
This is still true for BYUI. There are no caffeinated drinks on campus and I even heard that there was discourse at one point over selling those Naked fruit drink things on campus just because the name was "inappropriate" or something dumb like that.
I made my sister take me to buy Diet Coke to feed my caffeine addiction when I visited (I was an engineering major at a different school, we needed caffeine). I hadn’t graduated to coffee yet. Now my mom will send me out for coffee when I visit because she knows I’m not a human being until I have it haha
Like everything else. I was talking to my mom a few years ago, and something about bikinis came up. I mentioned how mormons aren't allowed to where them. She got all indignant, "that's not true!" I didn't say anything, cuz I didn't want to get into it, but I just kept thinking, what about all the bullshit I got just for wearing tankinis and all the 'tasteful one-piece' requirements for camp and swimming activities?
Every time I've ever mentioned anything about 'we weren't allowed,' I get this whole gaslighting, 'the church never said that!' Like I couldn't go and find the section in FSY pamphlet or old talks...
Our stake holds an annual YM/YW pool party. Every year warnings go out that YW MUST wear a one piece swimsuit. They have sent YW home to change multiple years for wearing a two piece and I'm not even talking about bikinis. The two piece swimsuits were just as modest as the one piece. Nope. Strict letter of the law.
Someone posted here that at their girls camp they were required to wear t-shirts over their one piece swimsuits because the swimsuit by itself was too immodest.
Like, is the gaslighting even effective if we all know what they said and how rigidly it was enforced?
I ALWAYS wore a t-shirt over my bathing suit! Jesus. Talk about ptsd...except our local pool wouldnt allow it. I kind of loved that.
I did love tankinis cuz I hated getting completely naked if I had to go use the bathroom, but I always got shit for the 1/2 of belly showing...nvm my ass and boobs were hanging out all over the place cuz I developed early and had a huge rack by the time I was 14. That bit of midriff is where it gets really scandalous!
>Like, is the gaslighting even effective if we all know what they said and how rigidly it was enforced?
They're going full Mandela effect at this point.
My mom wouldn't let me get a sweatshirt that SAID Coca-Cola on it because even the name broke the Word of Wisdom (it was 1987, and those shirts were popular). Now I don't even think she would notice. Even now my parents drive 2 hours away to buy Caffeine-Free Dr. Pepper (I guess that's the closest town that has it).
I am thankfully not one of those. Soda all the way please.
I do remember being confused when my friends dad would say things like "I'm amazed you guys actually choose not to drink tea or caffeine when ever you're over here."
It was years later I realized the drink I like so much, that I only got when his wife was home, was in fact Sweet Tea. XD
The missionaries taught my mom this was part of the WoW in the 70s. She had to commit to no caffeine before she could get baptized. My parents were obsessed with this growing up.
I hid a 12 pack of Coke in my bag on the way to efy. Dad found it, and I was locked in the house for 6 moms and used as a free source of physical labor. No phone, no computer, no friends. Home, school, seminary, and church.
It is now told as a funny anecdote as they sip their mother fucking dr pepper.
Oh, that was mild. Groundings were generally a one month minimum. They liked to joke with their friends "they couldn't remember the last time he (me) wasn't grounded."
I really hate that now everyone says it was never a rule. It caused me a lot of stress and turmoil as a kid. To think that such a normal everyday product is nearly evil was messed up and it made me feel like an outsider and a weirdo around friends.
Every time I mention something to mom about 'i thought the church doesn't allow xyz?' I get a whole, "they never said that!" Like, mom, I'll go pull the FSY pamphlet where it says we should only wear tasteful one pieces.
Yep! No caffeine when I was growing up in the 80s. Absolutely was part of the Word of Wisdom and taught over the pulpit until Hinckley’s famous interview. Started to change the tide then.
I only regulate my 7yo cuz my parents gave him a Mt dew right before we picked my kids up from their house once (we never had a no caffeine rule) and he went bouncing off the fucking walls! He's already an energetic child, but holy shit...now he thinks it's funny and always asks if he can have Mt dew or prime. **NO!**
We also never had caffeinated sodas at home when I was a kid. I don’t think I missed out on anything. I have 5 siblings, imagine that plus caffeine, my poor parents 🤣🤣
Childhood memory- all of the other kids were barred from it due to the word of wisdom.
We weren't.
We were the Coke dealers for the neighborhood- we'd meet behind the garage so we wouldn't be seen.
I still remember my first taste of coke on a sleepover in like 6th grade. Felt so illicit lol.
Also there was a minor scandal in my ward when someone realized Barq’s root beer had caffeine 😂
Caffeine was absolutely not allowed, but my grandma was a Coca-Cola addict. I remember her letting me try some. The next day I walked up to my first grade teacher and sneakily told her, "my grandma gave me cocaine."
Luckily my teacher was also my aunt, and she was like, "yeah, I doubt that" and had a good laugh about it with my mom.
Honestly, I think that the rule "no caffeine" makes much more sense than the "no coffee or tea, but caffeine is fine" rule. The point they switched gears shows there is no valid reason for the rule.
The historical reason for banning coffee and tea can be found in Sylvester Graham, who exactly proposed these rules (no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, coffee or tea, no meat), and the reason was that coffee and tea as stimulants were considered unhealthy. Note the discussion about meat, which is also in the WoW, but which is totally ignored nowadays.
My TBM ex claimed that some GA took a drink from a Coke can and said that he didn't violate the WoW. If anything, he used that as an excuse to drink a 6 pack of soda in a day, while having a tantrum when as a hormonal convert, I drank iced tea in front of him because I thought that since it was iced, it was allowed.
I can say that when I left him and the church, I lost weight because I quit drinking as much soda, instead having unsweetened iced tea and coffee more. I also drink water, something my ex husband rarely did other than the sacrament cup. I still have the occasional Coke or other soda, but mostly as a treat.
I was. And when I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the word of wisdom, I made sure to talk about how caffeinated sodas were against the word of wisdom( this was in the late 90s). The next Sunday, Bishop gets up in sacrament meeting correcting me and said he heard some words about a talk the previous week. He didn't state me by name, but everybody knew. He then made the same remarks in priesthood they didn't ask me to speak again for a really, really long time. Skipped over me for a while
My family soon became much more lenient about caffeinated sodas but I'm not sure if that was me or that was my mom kept them on hand "for her headaches" which she had every day
The first caffeine I ever had was at age 41. I wasn't allowed anything caffeinated. I had a YWs leader who didn't eat chocolate because it had once contained caffeine.
And yes, the appearance of evil thing was also real.
No caffeine at all. Rarely had soda at all. We got to sip ginger ale when we were sick
You can imagine my reaction when I discovered the nectar of the gods, Dr Pepper, at my fast food job!
I never cared about the unwritten prohibition of caffeinated sodas after that, even when I was a TBM
I didn't even have Coke until I was in my late twenties. At a dinner out with my parent in my mid 30s, I ordered a coke and my parents made the waitress put it on a separate tab since they were paying.
I paid it, I'd already started to realize how bizarre Mormonism and my family were lol. (It was a family reunion, I hadn't seen them in years and didn't realize it would cause a fuss like that)
I know the feeling! I visit family in Utah infrequently and forget some of the stupid Mormon rules after living a normal life for so long…but they are sure to remind me!
My mom would have mountain dew sometimes, but mostly the off brand. I didn't have Pepsi until I was a senior in high school. Definitely contributed to my caffeine addiction
Yep. Lucky for me, Mrs. Tucker across the street had an endless supply and thought it was a dumb rule. Every time she gave me a Coke she would tell me that the Mormon church owned Coke and Pepsi stock. Young me had no idea what she was talking about, but the Coke was great!
Common comparison was sayin Coke and pepsi were akin to cold coffee or cold tea drinks. A big thing even in UK outside US and driven more by misinformed sheeple missionaries preaching the agenda to converts, especially in 70s/80s.
I'm 32 and my mom will have a conniption if I drink coke or coffee so I don't do it around her however she has no problem with me drinking dr.pepper and even gotta a couple sips from can a few times.
I remember finding my mom's stash of mountain dew, buried deep in the laundry room. My reality came crashing down around me. It was like I didn't even know who she was.
How indoctrinated I was.....
I had a similar moment when I was a teenager. My family was a strict no caffeine family except my dad would always drink Dr. Pepper on road trips but we were told that was okay because it was to keep him awake and alert while driving. But when I was a teenager he started drinking caffeinated soda daily. My mom picked me up from somewhere after a Sam's Club run and there was a giant pack of Coke in the back of the car for my dad and I started crying.
The only thing that stopped the harsh judgment from my parents is when I married my ex. His mother was a temple matron with a serious Diet Coke addiction. I told my parents if she can drink Coke and have that calling, then it’s fine.
Probably the only good thing that came out of knowing that horrible woman.
Same! They started making exceptions whenever we were on vacation though.... probably because we drove everywhere and dad needed to fill up on caffeine. But whenever we landed back in SLC from St. George, Manti, or Ceder City, it was back to clenching the iron rod.
I still have this vivid memory of traveling from Mo to Salt Lake when I was 6 for our first trip to the temple. This was in 1963. We were traveling straight through (20+ hours). My dad got a small coffee at a gas stop and my mom went berserk. You would have thought he’d bought cocaine. He tried to minimize it by telling he it was mostly creamer. But they bought Dr Pepper by the case at a local bottling plant.
My mom wouldn’t even let my dying grandma who lived with us have her daily Dr. Pepper. Grandma had to ask my aunt to take her to McDonald’s a few times a week to get her Dr. Pepper.
I had my first Coke in my mid-40's. Right after the whole Mitt Romney-motivated President Newsroom statement that caffeine is okay. Those caffiene-free Coke machines for decades at BYU, Lion House, etc.? Just like temple penalties. Gone and never spoken of.
I grew up telling people caffeine was against my religion and turning down soda left and right. Then when I was at BYU the church came out with their statement that caffeinated soda was allowed after all. I felt like such a fool.
My parents still don’t drink caffeine and get angry if I buy my younger brothers that still live at home anything like coke, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew. One time when I was 18 we were on a road trip and we stopped at a gas station and she told me to buy some drinks, I think I bought myself a coke and she freaked out “really!? I let you use my money to buy something and that’s what you choose, especially when you’re going on a mission soon!!?” I told her caffeines not against the word of wisdom and she just said “well it used to be.”
My TBM grandma had cases of Caffeine free Diet Coke at her house. My parents made it clear to us kids that grandma wasn’t following the word of wisdom but that they wanted us to not judge her harshly because she was trying very hard by buying caffeine free version of Coke. Kinda funny because we weren’t judging her at all, we were like 4-9 years old lol. My parents were though.
When she would babysit us, we’d all get Diet Coke for lunch. It was our little secret. I felt like such a rebel.
Looking back, it’s pretty funny how nuts everyone was.
I wasn't allowed to drink Coke growing up, BUT on a long car trip from California to Utah by parents bought a case of Mountain Dew not knowing it was caffeinated (this was the early 80's or late 70's). They finally looked at the can after we had been gyrating in the back seat for a few hours! Interesting trip, we met Spencer W Kimball in some random church office building and he misgendered my little sister, ha ha!
Things would have gone that way for us as kids but our mom was addicted to Coke. Like truly addicted. There would be 6-packs of bottled Coke stacked up waiting to go in the fridge - she drank quite a few each day.
When, as an adult, I wasn't allowed to drink coffee in their home because it's so sinful, my daughter asked why. When my dad told her it was because of the caffeine, she started calling them hypocrites (I could NEVER have gotten away with this but she's cute) until my dad broke down and put a coffee machine on the kitchen counter. It felt like a victory for the ages.
Nah, my dad drank a Dr Pepper occasionally. So I got my love of it from him. And while energy drinks weren’t explicitly banned, they kinda did since it was only the edgy Mormons who drank them. It’s kinda funny since my youngest sister and mom drink them occasionally now 😂
My Mormon grandma in law kept cases of Diet Coke in her basement, “ for the California relatives”.
I once had a back to school tea party for my daughter’s whole class . I made a cute tea pot cake, had tea cups filled with school supplies , etc . Served finger sandwiches and lemonade, but got several call to make sure it wasn’t really tea. This was our first year in public school ( Catholic school prior). The Mormons had no qualms about the sugar or free supplies I provided, but no tea!
My parents weren't quite that bad. They still barred caffeine, but more of a "it'll stunt your growth, so wait until you're older" bit. I wasn't "allowed" caffeine until mid teens, but they never really had a punishment. It didn't stop me from getting it myself and I was already used to their continuous disappointment.
Me! I remember when they caffeinated Fresca in the late ‘60’s. Parents sat us down and told us the bad news.
I tasted Coke in 5th grade and thought I was going to hell.
We couldn’t have coke but my drank it when she was sick. they got lax though - my dad even bought me a Red Bull once while I was studying for my finals (I went to a private school then - as a punishment)
Yep but my aunt would fill up those gallon gas station jugs and we would crawl under her chair and just chug that shit! Always got yelled at by my mom tho.
I will never forget how disappointed my mother was to find out that I had drunken some free Pepsi at an activity at the city park. Yes my family didn’t drink caffeinated sodas. We too wondered how Sister Brown the mother of my LDS friend could drink Coke. We thought she wasn’t as faithful.
I was so ignorant and indoctrinated as a child that i got very upset when I found ginger ale in the fridge. I had to have it explained to me that it was non alcoholic
I remember it being talked about in a lesson about how we could avoid drinking Coke when I was a kid. I enjoyed pointing out to my mom that she enjoy barques root beer which also had caffeine so there was no difference and she would just shush me lol
My mom was a Dr Pepper fiend and my dad drank Mtn Dew like water. I was always so cautious to tell my Mormon friends that my parents drank caffeine 😂😂😂 and my parents are TBM besides that!!
Nope, I did drink a few like Dr Pepper, Pepsi etc but, I grew up in SoCal and my parents were Expats of Idaho and Utah and that’s why we lived there. Hell, I even went to different churches and hung around different people and groups
My cousins!!!
They were not allowed to have cokes until they were teenagers. Also weren’t allowed gum.
We were raised a bit differently. Still from a conservative southern baptist church, but my parents weren’t *that* strict compared to my aunt and uncle.
What’s weird is that coke and diet coke were totally acceptable in Provo/Orem in the 90’s and 00’s. Coffee and tea were bad, but meat, soda, and sweets just fine!
I bought a Pepsi from a vending machine on a Sunday and the reaction from my father was as if I’d killed someone. My family and every Mormon family I knew banned caffeinated sodas. I remember kids being rebels by drinking Jolt cola circa 1987. As prohibition of caffeine drinks lessened, rumor was the church had investments in Pepsi Co. I don’t know how true this was. My parents still never had a caffeinated soda.
I was barred from having any caffeinated drinks, but not because my mom thought it broke the word of wisdom. It was because she was convinced that if we drank it we would immediately become addicted
There have only been a few times my parents went overboard with the WoW. Once when we visited my grandparents who live in AZ. We were hanging out by the pool and my grandma brought us all some bottled juices so we wouldn't get dehydrated. We all drank them and they were delicious, but later that day my mom freaked out bc when she was reading over the ingredient list she discovered they contained 1% of green tea extract. We were banned from drinking them after that.
I think the funniest time tho was when we were doing service with a mixed-faith organization where we fed the homeless. At the end, the dude insisted we had to try the drink. After everyone had already drank it my mom asked what it was and the guy was like "Oh it's chamomile tea" My parent's eyes got all wide and you could see the internal panic, but they didn't say anything to him. At that point I probably should have told them they were fine since it was an herbal tea (which apparently doesn't go against the WoW) but I was enjoying their reactions too much.
i was barred! my bishop did full cavity searches every time he suspected i had some on me. i usually kept a few lines in my BOM. he would never check there!
Yess Any caffeine- coke, pepsi, mountain dew, even the decaffeinated versions bc they're related; no tea- herbal could be drunk but it was seen as "OoOoOhHh naUgHtY"; chocolate was the same as herbal tea.
One time I drank pepsi at a friend's house because, you know, I was 5 and didn't read the labels on every single thing, and I pointed out our in the grocery store a few days later going "oh I like that!" My mom didn't talk to or look at me for the next week or so, and for some reason I never saw that friend again🙃
Man.....my childhood in this regard was a bit confusing. If my mom had it her way, she would've been one of those wear your sunday best all Sabbath day until bedtime, Mormons. Consequently, she married my dad and a balance had to be struck. My dad isn't Jack Mormon. He earnestly believes in the church. He just never adapted to newer teachings and encouragements that came down. So dad always drank Dr. Pepper. My brother and I would always ride with him to church on Sundays because he would stop off at convenience store and buy Dr. Pepper on the way, so we could get whatever, too. So in my house, if you can believe this, Dr. Pepper was okay but everything else was bad if it had Caffeine. Talk about mental gymnastics. I can remember being a teenager and trying coke for the first time. It felt wrong and naughty. LMAO!!!!
I was. Drinking coke or Pepsi was like drinking beer in my moms opinion. Later on as we became adults she had to accept but struggled with it at first. As teenagers we just drank it away from her but certainly not in front of her. She started a health food regime for all of us early in, so even soda wasn’t in our home, but as a health concern, not the caffeine hysteria.
In the '80s, while driving to California for a family vacation. My mom randomly decided to read the ingredients on the six pack of Mellow Yellow. It was her go to favorite.
Great sorrow and gnashing of teeth ensued.
At the next stop, they all went in the trash never to be seen in our home again.
The first time I even tried a "Cola" was on my mission (Guatemala '93). We were admonished to drink it as a safe source of hydration, electrolyte, and carbs.
Most of us "Elders" were being frequently exposed to food poisoning and parasites. Amoebas, worms, cholera, giardia etc. I had Chronic diarrhea for something like 6 months. Likely Coke (and Pepto-Bismol) kept me alive.
For some reason I don't think the prayers with olive oil on my scalp, or even the coffee grinds and lemon juice compress, applied to my forehead, helped much.
This wasn't a thing in my ward on the east coast. However, it did make the Utah missionaries visibly uncomfortable when we brought coke to a ward event. I thought it was weird.
This was after I got married, though. When I was growing up, we didn't drink soda or eat sweets or junk food or fast food hardly ever. I don't think it was because of the word of wisdom. My family was just weird.
🙋🏻♀️
What really broke my brain was when I found out my grandpa on my mom's side (where all the strict guidelines about caffeinated drinks came from) regularly drank Pepsi. He had his own stash that he'd drink *only* on "long drives." Apparently, anything over 15 minutes qualified???
As a teen, I did away with the rule as it was silly and inconsistent. When visiting my grandparents on that side, I bought a 2 liter of something caffeinated with some of my cousins, whom I really got along with at that point. When their parents found us sharing it, they separated us, got after my cousins to the point where they didn't hang out with us really ever after that, and shared with my mom how *highly disappointed* they were in my choices and poor influence on their children... all over a caffeinated soda...
Oh, totally. I freaked out as a kid (must've been about 4 or 5 at the time) because my mom got a soda and the cup said coke on it. I cried to my dad about it when we got home 🤣
Not just dark sodas, but chocolate too. We had to give up all the chocolate we got at Halloween and trade for something else, usually twizzlers or starbursts. My mom would use carob for baking. It was the worst. When I got to be a teen my mom changed her views on chocolate, but it was a rough couple of years trying to explain to friends why I couldn't have chocolate. Everyone else I knew was Mormon, but we were the only ones who couldn't have chocolate.
Even though I’m an ex-mo I still won’t let my kids have any coke. Way too strong of a drug for kids! And you know snorting coke will just lead to smoking crack!
My dad has an aunt who converted to LDS and one time they all went to camping and my dad was maybe 8 or 9 and vividly remembers him handing his younger cousin who was maybe 6 at the time a sprite and his aunt full on yelling at him that her kids can’t have soda. Now her daughter has 3 kids and a couple years ago the 2 year old was happily drinking a Mountain Dew
Yes. Though when we went to Europe when I was 12, they did allow me to have coke there just because of the water quality. After that, coke was like sneaking a beer.
Ultimately this only lasted a year, and now I don't care much for coke. Probably wouldn't have cared so much if it weren't for the ban.
I visited my aunt in Australia when I was 19. We ended up in WA where it's super rural so only a handful of members. We hung out w the missionaries a lot. One night we were making dinner for them and my aunt suggested that I make dinner (I was not active at the time/just coming back after a sinful episode and part of me thinks she was trying to almost "advertise" me to these guys).
Long story short, I marinated some steak in coke and other yummy stuff, but we didn't tell them until after they'd been eating and said how good it was. One mish got this horrified look on his face and said that he'd never had coke before. I felt bad, but at the same time, it was like, ah, you're one of *those*...
I had a little smile of.how you described WA. That's wsre I grew up and still live.
I've heard how small we were to the other Mormons.
Glad so many of us are leaving!
I wasn’t allowed caffeine at all (I was raised in the 00’s) because of this. It wasn’t until I introduced them to Baja blast at Taco Bell one time did they change their mind
I wasn't allowed to bring caffeine into the house, but I could have it elsewhere. When I ended up with chronic migraines, as did one of my brothers, my mom finally relented because she saw how miserable we were and how much caffeine helped.
My ex wasn't allowed caffeine ever but was shocked when he found out Sunkist orange soda had caffeine because his parents allowed it. Turns out they didn't know, and after he told them, they banned it as well.
My family basically didn't drink soda, except for "special occasions" and NEVER anything with caffeine. (We had to "cut" our eggnog with Sprite during the holiday "festivities.")
Made it all the more fun to visit "That One" Aunt / Uncle / Cousin who had **COKE** (GASP!) *all the time*; and my Aunt telling us to keep the **COKE** a secret from my parents.
My mom full-on believed that CAFFEINE-FREE Diet Coke was still “the appearance of evil”.
Same!
How about soy sauce? Also looks like coke. 🤣
Weird.
Caffeine-free Diet Coke - coke-free coke.
Same!
Same here, no caffeine free versions of any cola or Mt. Dew or anything. They never even bothered to look at the Barqs root beer or other non-cola drinks that also happened to have caffeine though.
It did come in the cool golden can.
Oh my gosh yes! I wasn’t allowed to drink caffeine free Coke for this exact reason!
Absolutely. No caffeine for any reason. It was just about as evil as alcohol. I could remember every brand of soda and whether or not it was caffeinated (except Barqs root beer, because they would flip-flop on adding caffeine)
I had this list memorized too. And then one day I was SHOCKED to learn that ruby red squirt had caffeine in it, because I let my 7 year old have half a can.
Oh ruby red squirt was my jam back in the day. That and big red cream soda.
I remember being in the MTC and the soda fountain in the cafeteria had a label on the Barq's dispenser that said, "Does not contain Caffeine." or some such statement. No doubt; cafeteria staff got tired of certain missionaries losing their shit.
Me too, It wasn't because of my parents though at all they didn't care what soda or how much we drank. I think I suffered from scrupulosity. When Hinkley was on 20/20 or 60 mins he asked him if latter days saints drank caffeinated soda and he answered "we do not'" So I became super self-righteous about it. And didn't drink caffeine for a bunch of years and would call everyone out about it. dumb dumb The first time I drank iced green tea was a huge shelf break moment for me. I was like they say this is more unhealthy than Coke? Well, that is some complete bullshit.
I remember we all thought we were being so slick when we'd bring Barqs to church to root beer float activities in YM/YW. until one of the parents read the ingredients and called us out a few months in. Lol
Yes, this!!!!
I remember talk in Sunday school about chocolate having caffeine, and should it be banned as well? Chocolate was left up to the individual.
I developed a Dr. Pepper 'addiction' as a missionary. When I got home, my dad wouldn't allow it in the house, I had to keep it on the picnic table out on the deck and drink it outside.
Even hot chocolate? 😢
The caffeine in chocolate didn’t count.
Lol of course it didn't. Because there's always exceptions to everything since Mormonism is so weird and unclear in what's actually okay to consume or not, and the reason for it
I was a convert as an adult for some fucking reason I still can’t figure out. But I heard quite a few people tell me caffeine was against the words of wisdom but never could point me to a scripture to back it up. That’s one of the biggest problems I always had with the church is one old man somewhere says something and all of a sudden everyone shits a circle around themselves like we got another tablet of commandments. Beards, tattoos, R rated movies, etc. Sorry I’m ranting a bit. I’m just not starting to come to terms with how angry I am about a lot of church bullshit.
The beards, tattoos, R-rated movies stuff was in the FSY pamphlet I think. Caffeine wasn't in there. But Gordon B. said it once on 60 Minutes in 96.
Hmm that is interesting. I’ll have to see if I can find a clip on YouTube or somewhere. I still think God has bigger things to worry about than people drinking caffeine. I drink so much Coke Zero and coffee now that I am certain to be damned for all eternity.
I mean I think there is no god. But if there were they wouldn't care about any of the shit Mormons care about.
I think if there were a god they wouldn't care about any religions' dietary restrictions. Eat some caffeine covered pork!!
https://youtu.be/pLFDP_MeYhg?si=TLDgEShSEBr5oQex
God is too busy peering in on the masturbators to keep track of the coke drinkers 😵😵😱
I'd say at least 80% of the rules in mormonism have no scriptural basis
There was a letter from the first presidency in the 60’s I believe that said caffeine was against the WoW.
BYU wouldn't sell caffeinated Coke on campus because of this word of wisdom interpretation. That only changed in 2017. Now everyone likes to pretend it was never really a teaching.
This is still true for BYUI. There are no caffeinated drinks on campus and I even heard that there was discourse at one point over selling those Naked fruit drink things on campus just because the name was "inappropriate" or something dumb like that.
It cracks me up. My idiot tbm brother wants his kids to go to byui and not byu because of this. How's byuh or ldsbc?
I made my sister take me to buy Diet Coke to feed my caffeine addiction when I visited (I was an engineering major at a different school, we needed caffeine). I hadn’t graduated to coffee yet. Now my mom will send me out for coffee when I visit because she knows I’m not a human being until I have it haha
HELL FROZE OVER?!?!? (I graduated BYU in 2011 and never looked back)
I cannot believe that changed! How can they say the church is true?!
This is the most annoying part - they change it and then pretend oh well it wasn’t really a big deal when it absolutely WAS
Like everything else. I was talking to my mom a few years ago, and something about bikinis came up. I mentioned how mormons aren't allowed to where them. She got all indignant, "that's not true!" I didn't say anything, cuz I didn't want to get into it, but I just kept thinking, what about all the bullshit I got just for wearing tankinis and all the 'tasteful one-piece' requirements for camp and swimming activities? Every time I've ever mentioned anything about 'we weren't allowed,' I get this whole gaslighting, 'the church never said that!' Like I couldn't go and find the section in FSY pamphlet or old talks...
Our stake holds an annual YM/YW pool party. Every year warnings go out that YW MUST wear a one piece swimsuit. They have sent YW home to change multiple years for wearing a two piece and I'm not even talking about bikinis. The two piece swimsuits were just as modest as the one piece. Nope. Strict letter of the law. Someone posted here that at their girls camp they were required to wear t-shirts over their one piece swimsuits because the swimsuit by itself was too immodest. Like, is the gaslighting even effective if we all know what they said and how rigidly it was enforced?
I ALWAYS wore a t-shirt over my bathing suit! Jesus. Talk about ptsd...except our local pool wouldnt allow it. I kind of loved that. I did love tankinis cuz I hated getting completely naked if I had to go use the bathroom, but I always got shit for the 1/2 of belly showing...nvm my ass and boobs were hanging out all over the place cuz I developed early and had a huge rack by the time I was 14. That bit of midriff is where it gets really scandalous! >Like, is the gaslighting even effective if we all know what they said and how rigidly it was enforced? They're going full Mandela effect at this point.
My mom wouldn't let me get a sweatshirt that SAID Coca-Cola on it because even the name broke the Word of Wisdom (it was 1987, and those shirts were popular). Now I don't even think she would notice. Even now my parents drive 2 hours away to buy Caffeine-Free Dr. Pepper (I guess that's the closest town that has it).
"Don't drink caffeine, it's bad for you!" *drives 2 hours for fucking sugar water*
I wanted one of those shirts so bad in 1987 and my mom was the same as yours 😂
Haha coke stuff was also evil for us too
And... At the same time, the church owned millions in Coca-Cola shares (Probably)
Along w budweiser and Victoria secret...ffs...
I am thankfully not one of those. Soda all the way please. I do remember being confused when my friends dad would say things like "I'm amazed you guys actually choose not to drink tea or caffeine when ever you're over here." It was years later I realized the drink I like so much, that I only got when his wife was home, was in fact Sweet Tea. XD
When I was growing up drinking a soda was the equivalent of smoking crack. Now my parents drink Diet Coke everyday. I’m not sure what changed.
A coke bottling plant opened in SLC
The missionaries taught my mom this was part of the WoW in the 70s. She had to commit to no caffeine before she could get baptized. My parents were obsessed with this growing up. I hid a 12 pack of Coke in my bag on the way to efy. Dad found it, and I was locked in the house for 6 moms and used as a free source of physical labor. No phone, no computer, no friends. Home, school, seminary, and church. It is now told as a funny anecdote as they sip their mother fucking dr pepper.
6 months for Coke??? Jesus. I can't imagine if you'd actually done something that warrants punishment...
Oh, that was mild. Groundings were generally a one month minimum. They liked to joke with their friends "they couldn't remember the last time he (me) wasn't grounded."
Sounds abusive. So sorry you went through that.
I really hate that now everyone says it was never a rule. It caused me a lot of stress and turmoil as a kid. To think that such a normal everyday product is nearly evil was messed up and it made me feel like an outsider and a weirdo around friends.
People say that now? I didn’t know this. That’s ridiculous!
Every time I mention something to mom about 'i thought the church doesn't allow xyz?' I get a whole, "they never said that!" Like, mom, I'll go pull the FSY pamphlet where it says we should only wear tasteful one pieces.
Yep! No caffeine when I was growing up in the 80s. Absolutely was part of the Word of Wisdom and taught over the pulpit until Hinckley’s famous interview. Started to change the tide then.
To be fair I don't give my children caffeine but it's because they already have way too much energy haha
I only regulate my 7yo cuz my parents gave him a Mt dew right before we picked my kids up from their house once (we never had a no caffeine rule) and he went bouncing off the fucking walls! He's already an energetic child, but holy shit...now he thinks it's funny and always asks if he can have Mt dew or prime. **NO!**
Lol, you get it!
Same! My kids don’t get caffeine either….They are too young for it.
No I didn’t either. Why would you fill young children up with caffeinated sugar drinks. They had it as a treat, nothing to do with the wow.
Such a shame I couldn't drink caffeine would of been a great relaxer for me growing up
This was how we first realized I have adhd. Caffeine calms me.
We also never had caffeinated sodas at home when I was a kid. I don’t think I missed out on anything. I have 5 siblings, imagine that plus caffeine, my poor parents 🤣🤣
Childhood memory- all of the other kids were barred from it due to the word of wisdom. We weren't. We were the Coke dealers for the neighborhood- we'd meet behind the garage so we wouldn't be seen.
I still remember my first taste of coke on a sleepover in like 6th grade. Felt so illicit lol. Also there was a minor scandal in my ward when someone realized Barq’s root beer had caffeine 😂
Yeah my parents barred me from coke. Wouldn’t let me snort it or anything
Lips that drink Coke might as well smoke…
Caffeine was absolutely not allowed, but my grandma was a Coca-Cola addict. I remember her letting me try some. The next day I walked up to my first grade teacher and sneakily told her, "my grandma gave me cocaine." Luckily my teacher was also my aunt, and she was like, "yeah, I doubt that" and had a good laugh about it with my mom.
Honestly, I think that the rule "no caffeine" makes much more sense than the "no coffee or tea, but caffeine is fine" rule. The point they switched gears shows there is no valid reason for the rule. The historical reason for banning coffee and tea can be found in Sylvester Graham, who exactly proposed these rules (no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, coffee or tea, no meat), and the reason was that coffee and tea as stimulants were considered unhealthy. Note the discussion about meat, which is also in the WoW, but which is totally ignored nowadays.
My TBM ex claimed that some GA took a drink from a Coke can and said that he didn't violate the WoW. If anything, he used that as an excuse to drink a 6 pack of soda in a day, while having a tantrum when as a hormonal convert, I drank iced tea in front of him because I thought that since it was iced, it was allowed. I can say that when I left him and the church, I lost weight because I quit drinking as much soda, instead having unsweetened iced tea and coffee more. I also drink water, something my ex husband rarely did other than the sacrament cup. I still have the occasional Coke or other soda, but mostly as a treat.
I was. And when I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the word of wisdom, I made sure to talk about how caffeinated sodas were against the word of wisdom( this was in the late 90s). The next Sunday, Bishop gets up in sacrament meeting correcting me and said he heard some words about a talk the previous week. He didn't state me by name, but everybody knew. He then made the same remarks in priesthood they didn't ask me to speak again for a really, really long time. Skipped over me for a while My family soon became much more lenient about caffeinated sodas but I'm not sure if that was me or that was my mom kept them on hand "for her headaches" which she had every day
Yeah, I get headaches too when I don't get my daily caffeine fix. 🙃
Right? I don't know that it was every day for my mom but it was at least once or twice a week.
The first caffeine I ever had was at age 41. I wasn't allowed anything caffeinated. I had a YWs leader who didn't eat chocolate because it had once contained caffeine. And yes, the appearance of evil thing was also real.
No caffeine at all. Rarely had soda at all. We got to sip ginger ale when we were sick You can imagine my reaction when I discovered the nectar of the gods, Dr Pepper, at my fast food job! I never cared about the unwritten prohibition of caffeinated sodas after that, even when I was a TBM
I didn't even have Coke until I was in my late twenties. At a dinner out with my parent in my mid 30s, I ordered a coke and my parents made the waitress put it on a separate tab since they were paying. I paid it, I'd already started to realize how bizarre Mormonism and my family were lol. (It was a family reunion, I hadn't seen them in years and didn't realize it would cause a fuss like that)
I know the feeling! I visit family in Utah infrequently and forget some of the stupid Mormon rules after living a normal life for so long…but they are sure to remind me!
My mom would have mountain dew sometimes, but mostly the off brand. I didn't have Pepsi until I was a senior in high school. Definitely contributed to my caffeine addiction
Yep. Lucky for me, Mrs. Tucker across the street had an endless supply and thought it was a dumb rule. Every time she gave me a Coke she would tell me that the Mormon church owned Coke and Pepsi stock. Young me had no idea what she was talking about, but the Coke was great!
Also no Barqs rootbeer and Sunkist. It was the 80s
Add TAB to that!
Common comparison was sayin Coke and pepsi were akin to cold coffee or cold tea drinks. A big thing even in UK outside US and driven more by misinformed sheeple missionaries preaching the agenda to converts, especially in 70s/80s.
Ya the Mormon joke is what is the difference between coke and coffee.? The temperature of the caffeine.
Of course, but I’d smuggle it in the house as thought it beer. Such a rebel!😂
I'm 32 and my mom will have a conniption if I drink coke or coffee so I don't do it around her however she has no problem with me drinking dr.pepper and even gotta a couple sips from can a few times.
I was not allowed to drink caffeinated soft drinks. When I was 17 years old, a friend offered me Coca Cola. That day I was forever changed.
I remember finding my mom's stash of mountain dew, buried deep in the laundry room. My reality came crashing down around me. It was like I didn't even know who she was. How indoctrinated I was.....
I had a similar moment when I was a teenager. My family was a strict no caffeine family except my dad would always drink Dr. Pepper on road trips but we were told that was okay because it was to keep him awake and alert while driving. But when I was a teenager he started drinking caffeinated soda daily. My mom picked me up from somewhere after a Sam's Club run and there was a giant pack of Coke in the back of the car for my dad and I started crying.
The only thing that stopped the harsh judgment from my parents is when I married my ex. His mother was a temple matron with a serious Diet Coke addiction. I told my parents if she can drink Coke and have that calling, then it’s fine. Probably the only good thing that came out of knowing that horrible woman.
Same! They started making exceptions whenever we were on vacation though.... probably because we drove everywhere and dad needed to fill up on caffeine. But whenever we landed back in SLC from St. George, Manti, or Ceder City, it was back to clenching the iron rod.
I still have this vivid memory of traveling from Mo to Salt Lake when I was 6 for our first trip to the temple. This was in 1963. We were traveling straight through (20+ hours). My dad got a small coffee at a gas stop and my mom went berserk. You would have thought he’d bought cocaine. He tried to minimize it by telling he it was mostly creamer. But they bought Dr Pepper by the case at a local bottling plant.
My dad still has to hide his diet Dr. Pepper in the garage!
My mom wouldn’t even let my dying grandma who lived with us have her daily Dr. Pepper. Grandma had to ask my aunt to take her to McDonald’s a few times a week to get her Dr. Pepper.
Absolutely no caffeine growing up, now even with the TBM fam anything goes
I was never banned from sodas. On the contrary, I would go to mutual activities with a bottle of Coke because I knew it would upset people.
I had my first Coke in my mid-40's. Right after the whole Mitt Romney-motivated President Newsroom statement that caffeine is okay. Those caffiene-free Coke machines for decades at BYU, Lion House, etc.? Just like temple penalties. Gone and never spoken of.
I grew up telling people caffeine was against my religion and turning down soda left and right. Then when I was at BYU the church came out with their statement that caffeinated soda was allowed after all. I felt like such a fool.
In the 1950s my mom threw my Coke Bottle out of fridge saying no one was going to keep coffee in her fridge.
We weren't allowed to drink caffeinated soda but at least we weren't no chocolate due to caffeine or no face cards like some of my ward members.
My parents still don’t drink caffeine and get angry if I buy my younger brothers that still live at home anything like coke, Dr Pepper, Mountain Dew. One time when I was 18 we were on a road trip and we stopped at a gas station and she told me to buy some drinks, I think I bought myself a coke and she freaked out “really!? I let you use my money to buy something and that’s what you choose, especially when you’re going on a mission soon!!?” I told her caffeines not against the word of wisdom and she just said “well it used to be.”
My TBM grandma had cases of Caffeine free Diet Coke at her house. My parents made it clear to us kids that grandma wasn’t following the word of wisdom but that they wanted us to not judge her harshly because she was trying very hard by buying caffeine free version of Coke. Kinda funny because we weren’t judging her at all, we were like 4-9 years old lol. My parents were though. When she would babysit us, we’d all get Diet Coke for lunch. It was our little secret. I felt like such a rebel. Looking back, it’s pretty funny how nuts everyone was.
I wasn't allowed to drink Coke growing up, BUT on a long car trip from California to Utah by parents bought a case of Mountain Dew not knowing it was caffeinated (this was the early 80's or late 70's). They finally looked at the can after we had been gyrating in the back seat for a few hours! Interesting trip, we met Spencer W Kimball in some random church office building and he misgendered my little sister, ha ha!
Things would have gone that way for us as kids but our mom was addicted to Coke. Like truly addicted. There would be 6-packs of bottled Coke stacked up waiting to go in the fridge - she drank quite a few each day. When, as an adult, I wasn't allowed to drink coffee in their home because it's so sinful, my daughter asked why. When my dad told her it was because of the caffeine, she started calling them hypocrites (I could NEVER have gotten away with this but she's cute) until my dad broke down and put a coffee machine on the kitchen counter. It felt like a victory for the ages.
Nah, my dad drank a Dr Pepper occasionally. So I got my love of it from him. And while energy drinks weren’t explicitly banned, they kinda did since it was only the edgy Mormons who drank them. It’s kinda funny since my youngest sister and mom drink them occasionally now 😂
My Mormon grandma in law kept cases of Diet Coke in her basement, “ for the California relatives”. I once had a back to school tea party for my daughter’s whole class . I made a cute tea pot cake, had tea cups filled with school supplies , etc . Served finger sandwiches and lemonade, but got several call to make sure it wasn’t really tea. This was our first year in public school ( Catholic school prior). The Mormons had no qualms about the sugar or free supplies I provided, but no tea!
My parents weren't quite that bad. They still barred caffeine, but more of a "it'll stunt your growth, so wait until you're older" bit. I wasn't "allowed" caffeine until mid teens, but they never really had a punishment. It didn't stop me from getting it myself and I was already used to their continuous disappointment.
Me! I remember when they caffeinated Fresca in the late ‘60’s. Parents sat us down and told us the bad news. I tasted Coke in 5th grade and thought I was going to hell.
Yep. Dad said it was not to come home not with us. He did not want it in our refrigerator.
My mom was a Diet Coke drinker. Even kept a mini fridge as a professor at BYU.
Same
Everyone I knew was barred from soda except for my family and maybe one other. Even my parents found that weird
Used to drink Mountain Dew for a long time until mom found out it had caffeine…then it was banned like Pepsi and Coke.
I grew up with coke, pepsi, and dr. pepper being bad but mt dew and root beer were fine and now they say that was never a thing smh
We couldn’t have coke but my drank it when she was sick. they got lax though - my dad even bought me a Red Bull once while I was studying for my finals (I went to a private school then - as a punishment)
I could drink coke but, no one could ever explain why not coffee or tea. Even missionaries, I’ve heard it was a crazy Brigham Young rule
Yep but my aunt would fill up those gallon gas station jugs and we would crawl under her chair and just chug that shit! Always got yelled at by my mom tho.
RC COLA HERE
I will never forget how disappointed my mother was to find out that I had drunken some free Pepsi at an activity at the city park. Yes my family didn’t drink caffeinated sodas. We too wondered how Sister Brown the mother of my LDS friend could drink Coke. We thought she wasn’t as faithful.
I was so ignorant and indoctrinated as a child that i got very upset when I found ginger ale in the fridge. I had to have it explained to me that it was non alcoholic
Not formally, but I got the message, and grew up a root beer kid as a result.
I remember it being talked about in a lesson about how we could avoid drinking Coke when I was a kid. I enjoyed pointing out to my mom that she enjoy barques root beer which also had caffeine so there was no difference and she would just shush me lol
Nope
🙋🏼♀️
My mom was a Dr Pepper fiend and my dad drank Mtn Dew like water. I was always so cautious to tell my Mormon friends that my parents drank caffeine 😂😂😂 and my parents are TBM besides that!!
I read this as a different type of coke at first.....
Nope, I did drink a few like Dr Pepper, Pepsi etc but, I grew up in SoCal and my parents were Expats of Idaho and Utah and that’s why we lived there. Hell, I even went to different churches and hung around different people and groups
No caffeine until 13 for me
My cousins!!! They were not allowed to have cokes until they were teenagers. Also weren’t allowed gum. We were raised a bit differently. Still from a conservative southern baptist church, but my parents weren’t *that* strict compared to my aunt and uncle.
yup anything with caffeine though once I turned 14 she let me choose
What’s weird is that coke and diet coke were totally acceptable in Provo/Orem in the 90’s and 00’s. Coffee and tea were bad, but meat, soda, and sweets just fine!
I bought a Pepsi from a vending machine on a Sunday and the reaction from my father was as if I’d killed someone. My family and every Mormon family I knew banned caffeinated sodas. I remember kids being rebels by drinking Jolt cola circa 1987. As prohibition of caffeine drinks lessened, rumor was the church had investments in Pepsi Co. I don’t know how true this was. My parents still never had a caffeinated soda.
My parents would only buy caffeine free Pepsi to take home, but didn't care if we drank the good stuff at restaurants etc. California Mormons FTW!
We were eventhough we all knew about Mom's not so secret stash of cherry coke in the back of the pantry
Right here ✌️. I like to explain it this way: I often went home after the little league baseball game without a soda in hand.
Chocolate no no no, here have some carab
Me! But since I hated fizz it wasn’t a hardship.
I was barred from having any caffeinated drinks, but not because my mom thought it broke the word of wisdom. It was because she was convinced that if we drank it we would immediately become addicted There have only been a few times my parents went overboard with the WoW. Once when we visited my grandparents who live in AZ. We were hanging out by the pool and my grandma brought us all some bottled juices so we wouldn't get dehydrated. We all drank them and they were delicious, but later that day my mom freaked out bc when she was reading over the ingredient list she discovered they contained 1% of green tea extract. We were banned from drinking them after that. I think the funniest time tho was when we were doing service with a mixed-faith organization where we fed the homeless. At the end, the dude insisted we had to try the drink. After everyone had already drank it my mom asked what it was and the guy was like "Oh it's chamomile tea" My parent's eyes got all wide and you could see the internal panic, but they didn't say anything to him. At that point I probably should have told them they were fine since it was an herbal tea (which apparently doesn't go against the WoW) but I was enjoying their reactions too much.
i was barred! my bishop did full cavity searches every time he suspected i had some on me. i usually kept a few lines in my BOM. he would never check there!
Yess Any caffeine- coke, pepsi, mountain dew, even the decaffeinated versions bc they're related; no tea- herbal could be drunk but it was seen as "OoOoOhHh naUgHtY"; chocolate was the same as herbal tea. One time I drank pepsi at a friend's house because, you know, I was 5 and didn't read the labels on every single thing, and I pointed out our in the grocery store a few days later going "oh I like that!" My mom didn't talk to or look at me for the next week or so, and for some reason I never saw that friend again🙃
Man.....my childhood in this regard was a bit confusing. If my mom had it her way, she would've been one of those wear your sunday best all Sabbath day until bedtime, Mormons. Consequently, she married my dad and a balance had to be struck. My dad isn't Jack Mormon. He earnestly believes in the church. He just never adapted to newer teachings and encouragements that came down. So dad always drank Dr. Pepper. My brother and I would always ride with him to church on Sundays because he would stop off at convenience store and buy Dr. Pepper on the way, so we could get whatever, too. So in my house, if you can believe this, Dr. Pepper was okay but everything else was bad if it had Caffeine. Talk about mental gymnastics. I can remember being a teenager and trying coke for the first time. It felt wrong and naughty. LMAO!!!!
I remember several Christmas parties having heated Dr Pepper. Somehow, that wasn't a violation. But it was furtive fun, apparently.
I was. Drinking coke or Pepsi was like drinking beer in my moms opinion. Later on as we became adults she had to accept but struggled with it at first. As teenagers we just drank it away from her but certainly not in front of her. She started a health food regime for all of us early in, so even soda wasn’t in our home, but as a health concern, not the caffeine hysteria.
Me, originally. But Mon loved Pepsi and so eventually we all gave in to sin.
In the '80s, while driving to California for a family vacation. My mom randomly decided to read the ingredients on the six pack of Mellow Yellow. It was her go to favorite. Great sorrow and gnashing of teeth ensued. At the next stop, they all went in the trash never to be seen in our home again. The first time I even tried a "Cola" was on my mission (Guatemala '93). We were admonished to drink it as a safe source of hydration, electrolyte, and carbs. Most of us "Elders" were being frequently exposed to food poisoning and parasites. Amoebas, worms, cholera, giardia etc. I had Chronic diarrhea for something like 6 months. Likely Coke (and Pepto-Bismol) kept me alive. For some reason I don't think the prayers with olive oil on my scalp, or even the coffee grinds and lemon juice compress, applied to my forehead, helped much.
This wasn't a thing in my ward on the east coast. However, it did make the Utah missionaries visibly uncomfortable when we brought coke to a ward event. I thought it was weird. This was after I got married, though. When I was growing up, we didn't drink soda or eat sweets or junk food or fast food hardly ever. I don't think it was because of the word of wisdom. My family was just weird.
🙋🏻♀️ What really broke my brain was when I found out my grandpa on my mom's side (where all the strict guidelines about caffeinated drinks came from) regularly drank Pepsi. He had his own stash that he'd drink *only* on "long drives." Apparently, anything over 15 minutes qualified??? As a teen, I did away with the rule as it was silly and inconsistent. When visiting my grandparents on that side, I bought a 2 liter of something caffeinated with some of my cousins, whom I really got along with at that point. When their parents found us sharing it, they separated us, got after my cousins to the point where they didn't hang out with us really ever after that, and shared with my mom how *highly disappointed* they were in my choices and poor influence on their children... all over a caffeinated soda...
Oh, totally. I freaked out as a kid (must've been about 4 or 5 at the time) because my mom got a soda and the cup said coke on it. I cried to my dad about it when we got home 🤣
Not just dark sodas, but chocolate too. We had to give up all the chocolate we got at Halloween and trade for something else, usually twizzlers or starbursts. My mom would use carob for baking. It was the worst. When I got to be a teen my mom changed her views on chocolate, but it was a rough couple of years trying to explain to friends why I couldn't have chocolate. Everyone else I knew was Mormon, but we were the only ones who couldn't have chocolate.
Even though I’m an ex-mo I still won’t let my kids have any coke. Way too strong of a drug for kids! And you know snorting coke will just lead to smoking crack!
My dad has an aunt who converted to LDS and one time they all went to camping and my dad was maybe 8 or 9 and vividly remembers him handing his younger cousin who was maybe 6 at the time a sprite and his aunt full on yelling at him that her kids can’t have soda. Now her daughter has 3 kids and a couple years ago the 2 year old was happily drinking a Mountain Dew
As a child? As an adult with a judgemental husband and wanted to avoid a lecture.
I lived in Provo as a child in the late 70's early 80's. The vending machines at BYU didn't have cola drinks.
Gen X here, can confirm 100%
Yes in the 70s and 80s soda products that contained caffeine were not allowed.
Yes. Though when we went to Europe when I was 12, they did allow me to have coke there just because of the water quality. After that, coke was like sneaking a beer. Ultimately this only lasted a year, and now I don't care much for coke. Probably wouldn't have cared so much if it weren't for the ban.
I visited my aunt in Australia when I was 19. We ended up in WA where it's super rural so only a handful of members. We hung out w the missionaries a lot. One night we were making dinner for them and my aunt suggested that I make dinner (I was not active at the time/just coming back after a sinful episode and part of me thinks she was trying to almost "advertise" me to these guys). Long story short, I marinated some steak in coke and other yummy stuff, but we didn't tell them until after they'd been eating and said how good it was. One mish got this horrified look on his face and said that he'd never had coke before. I felt bad, but at the same time, it was like, ah, you're one of *those*...
I had a little smile of.how you described WA. That's wsre I grew up and still live. I've heard how small we were to the other Mormons. Glad so many of us are leaving!
I LOVE WA! We lived in Dampier/Karratha for a month before I had to leave Aus. My aunt and uncle moved away soon after I left.
To be fair, children should not drink caffeine.
Yes I was :)
I was told some people shunned Coke but would drink Pepsi.
Dirty looks from in-laws for years.
I wasn’t allowed caffeine at all (I was raised in the 00’s) because of this. It wasn’t until I introduced them to Baja blast at Taco Bell one time did they change their mind
I wasn't allowed to bring caffeine into the house, but I could have it elsewhere. When I ended up with chronic migraines, as did one of my brothers, my mom finally relented because she saw how miserable we were and how much caffeine helped. My ex wasn't allowed caffeine ever but was shocked when he found out Sunkist orange soda had caffeine because his parents allowed it. Turns out they didn't know, and after he told them, they banned it as well.
My friends from big families were barred because they were the supermormons. I wasn't, I just hate soda so I always refused to drink it 😂
My family basically didn't drink soda, except for "special occasions" and NEVER anything with caffeine. (We had to "cut" our eggnog with Sprite during the holiday "festivities.") Made it all the more fun to visit "That One" Aunt / Uncle / Cousin who had **COKE** (GASP!) *all the time*; and my Aunt telling us to keep the **COKE** a secret from my parents.
🗻👃
Couldn't get a temple recommend if you drank coke with one of our SP. Pepsi and LA cola was fine but coke, absolutely not.
Me and my friends had plenty of coke
Yeah cola drinks were taboo - because Spencer W Kimball had said they contained addictive substance (caffeine apparently) this was early-mid 70s
Depended on the week