You might have noticed that there are fewer diet sodas in stores. This is not a supply chain issue (at least not in most places) but a production decision. While manufacturers are making and selling less diet soda, they are producing more "zero sugar" sodas. What's the difference? Mainly the words.
The word "diet" technically only means what one consumes, but consumers are used to "diet" meaning fewer calories so that you can lose weight. It has a connotation of a poor self-image and a regimen of deprivation. Who wants that? Younger consumers (i.e. Millennials) prefer to "eat healthier" instead of going on a diet. Less sugar is a draw for them, even if the same artificial sweeteners are used.
So is there a difference between "diet" sodas and "zero sugar" sodas? The ingredients may vary slightly, and some people consider zero sugar brands to more closely resemble the original sugary soda. The actual difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero is explained here. Read about the shift in consumer preferences and the labels that cater to them at All Recipes. -via Digg
(Image credit: Ben Schumin)
Comments (2)
Health food store soda pop with organic sugar or, worse, /honey/, is pretty bad. You gag just thinking about it.
I get enough sugar in my regular food, including chocolate covered raisins and the occasional praline pecan treat. I think of sugar free soda pop, if it's a kind you like, as healthy, delightful water. I do know a guy who can drink like five or ten diet drinks in an afternoon, and that's not right. But the dose makes the poison, and one or two isn't enough to hurt you.
There were some kinds of sugar soda pop I liked many years ago that they don't make any more. I wish I could try them now that I'm old and see if I still feel the same way. There was something called Orelia that was orange-like but tart and came in a lightbulb-shaped bottle, and there was an actual celery-flavored sweet soda pop called Cel-Ray. Pepsi or Dr Pepper in crushed ice is pretty good. Sometimes when I'm driving a long way at night in summer, when I stop for gas, I'll go in and make an experiment of all the different kinds of soda they have, just everything in one cup of ice. I used to do that when I worked in restaurants. The convenience store in Cloverdale (CA) has at least twelve different kinds, including diet or caffeine-free versions of flavors I've seen nowhere else.
I eat pretty healthily, mostly, and it's all my favorite food. Spaghetti and vegetables and a meatball or two. Chicken hotdogs. Big green salad every day. Mashed potatoes with extra butter and milk and frozen peas. Ramen with half a red onion cut up in it. Cayenne pepper and garlic in everything. These glorious delicacies are still cheap. We might as well enjoy them while we can. After the big smash we'll be lucky to find an intact can of beans or a half-used bottle of vitamin pills in a collapsed house at the edge of the blight.