# Diet Coke Just One Calorie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2002, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690 "2002-07-25T02:58:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jmortenson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@jmortenson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmortenson)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/1 "2002-07-25T02:58:01Z")
So, is this urban legend or not…I’ve heard that Diet Coke isn’t the low calorie splendor that we’re lead to believe. In fact, the rumor is that they pay the FDA for labeling violations/misrepresentation. (I know, kind of a lame question, but it came up at dinner tonight about the tobacco settlements and false advertising…) ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/2 "2002-07-25T04:19:08Z")
Hmmm…I happen to have a can of Diet Coke with Lemon [sub]Pledge[/sub] here (Mr. Tamex drinks it to keep his boyish figure ;).) “Calories 0”. Very strange. I wonder what a can of regular Diet Coke says. I Googled and got [this page](http://www.eureka-marketing.com/work-samples/honesty.htm) about “Disarming Honesty”. The gist of the idea is that you will win customers if you sound more honest. One of the companies who has successfully used this idea was the Coca-Cola Company. > [@](#): > > For years, Diet Coke was promoted with the message that it had just one calorie. In fact, the calorie count was closer to zero than one, and Coca-Cola could have legally promoted it as having no calories at all. However, consumers in test marketing just didn’t believe that it had no calories. It sounded too good to be true. > > Instead, Diet Coke was promoted as having “just one calorie” because this seemed more believable. According to this site, Coca-Cola was actually rounding up its number of calories! Would this cause the FDA to call the product “mislabeled”? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/3 "2002-07-25T04:26:24Z")
Hmmm…I happen to have a can of Diet Coke with Lemon [sub]Pledge[/sub] here (Mr. Tamex drinks it to keep his boyish figure ;).) “Calories 0”. Very strange. I wonder what a can of regular Diet Coke says. I Googled and got [this page](http://www.eureka-marketing.com/work-samples/honesty.htm) about “Disarming Honesty”. The gist of the idea is that you will win customers if you sound more honest. One of the companies who has successfully used this idea was the Coca-Cola Company. > [@](#): > > For years, Diet Coke was promoted with the message that it had just one calorie. In fact, the calorie count was closer to zero than one, and Coca-Cola could have legally promoted it as having no calories at all. However, consumers in test marketing just didn’t believe that it had no calories. It sounded too good to be true. > > Instead, Diet Coke was promoted as having “just one calorie” because this seemed more believable. According to this site, Coca-Cola was actually rounding up its number of calories! Would this cause the FDA to call the product “mislabeled”? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/4 "2002-07-25T05:03:06Z")
My students and I determined that Diet Coke is about 99% water. Whatever the remaining 1% is, it’s not very caloric. ---
**Author:** ![honkytonkwillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@honkytonkwillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/honkytonkwillie)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/5 "2002-07-25T07:16:34Z")
I buy the one calorie claim. However, the can in front of me claims zero calories. The artificial sweeteners still have the same amount of calories as sugars, they just happen to be ~200 times sweeter so they only have to use 1/200th of the regular amount of sugar. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/6 "2002-07-25T11:22:45Z")
> [@](#): > > The artificial sweeteners still have the same amount of calories as sugars, I don’t beleive this to be true. AFAIK The calories come from the additives to the aftificial sweetner to make measurable. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/7 "2002-07-25T13:20:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by honkytonkwillie \* > I buy the one calorie claim. However, the can in front of me claims zero calories. That’s because the “serving size” is only 6 fl.oz., or half a can. There’s probably something like 0.4 calories in half a can, allowing them to round down to zero. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/8 "2002-07-25T13:32:15Z")
I don’t know much about nutrition, but I do get serving sizes. For half-liter and up, Coke product nutrition information is given in servings of 8 oz, but for cans, it’s given in servings of 12 oz. If the can says 0 Calories, that’s for the whole can. I don’t know what the rules for rounding are, either, but I think they might not be totally intuitive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/9 "2002-07-25T14:06:33Z")
There was a thread a while back asking for verification of a claim to the effect that diet drinks were just as fattening because the human body converts artificial sweetners into sugar (the answer was substantially negative). ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/10 "2002-07-25T14:22:03Z")
Also, my class researched Sweet 'n Low. The package says “0 calorie granulated sugar substitute.” It also says it weighs one gram, and the Nutrition Facts tells us that there are zero calories and also one gram of sugar. So, how can it be a sugar substitute if it’s made of sugar? How can it have no caloires if it has a gram of sugar in it? Good questions for kids (and their teacher) to dig into, yes? We found that the FDA allows for the claim of zero calories because 4 calories is virtually none. Yep, that’s essentially what we found. Also, the dextrose is, as was mentioned above, the vehicle for the 36 milligrams of saccharin that does the bulk of the sweetening. Since most people use several grams of sugar - i.e. a teaspoon or more - this tiny package provides the same sweetening with just 4 calories. It is deceptive, no doubt. For people who need to watch their sugar intake, such as diabetics, it seems to border on the dangerous. For the unsuspecting (read: typical) consumer who thinks “zero calories” means “zero calories” and “sugar substitute” means “sugar substitute,” it’s interesting, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/11 "2002-07-25T14:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*That’s because the “serving size” is only 6 fl.oz., or half a can. There’s probably something like 0.4 calories in half a can, allowing them to round down to zero. \*\* Not anymore. They started calling the entire can “one serving” back when they switched to the “Nutrition Facts” labeling. Here’s a [page](http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qa-lab18.html) that explains the reasoning behind that. I found this even weirder UL about Diet Coke, though: > [@](#): > > 1 calorie Diet Coke: > > When Coke wanted a “new and improved” Diet Coke to capture more market share, they knew that they needed either a gimmick or some distinct difference in quality. After a lot of “brain-storming” (more storm, less brain) by the VP’s they decided to shoot for the elusive “1 calorie” goal. > > Unfortunately, they didn’t make it. Until recently, about 4-5 years ago, 1 calorie Diet Coke was NOT 1 calorie. Instead, some “genius” at Coke decided to patent a complex carbohydrate which was given the “cal orie” name. Since the name had not been taken as two words, law allowed that this new chemical compound (which was merely one additional active element added on to a existing compound) to be patented. They added this compound to the formula and put on the label - 1 Cal orie Diet Coke. > > They got sued for false advertising, but they figured it was cheaper to pay the govt. fines and get the good marketing pitch. Supposedly the money they made off it was tremendous. > > Now given some changes to the Diet Coke formula, it is _supposedly_ 1 calorie. You’ll have to take their word on it. And then, even weirder: > [@](#): > > Cal Orie was the product manager of Mr. Pibb, one of the “failed” soda brands… He was not happy when his name was inadvertently tied to the Diet Coke product. He was the first individual to take legal action against Coke. Apparently, some people think that even one calorie is too good to be true. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/12 "2002-07-25T14:55:22Z")
[Pepsi](http://www.pepsico.com/press/19980630.shtml) makes a point of saying they have the “flagship one-calorie brand Diet Pepsi”. And Pepsi One has one calorie – that’s where it gets the name. Maybe it was always Pepsi making this claim, rather than Coca-Cola. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/13 "2002-07-25T18:50:07Z")
If memory serves, it was Diet Pepsi and TaB that were marketed with having one calorie. Jingles from memory: "Now you see it, now you don’t Here you have it, here you won’t Oh, Diet Pepsi, one small calorie Now you see it, now you don’t That great Pepsi taste Now your Pepsi won’t go to your waist So now you see it, now you don’t Diet Pepsi, one small calorie Now you see it, now you don’t" and “Tab! Tab cola - what a beautiful drink TaB! Tab cola - for beautiful people (forgot some of the lines here) One calorie - water zero Tab! Tab cola - so beautiful to be So good and sugar free - TaB!” Coke ended up developing Diet Coke because TaB was seen as a “woman’s” drink and ended up getting a bigger share of the men’s market, but I don’t remember what the advertised calorie count was at that time. At some point Diet Pepsi started labeling itself with 0 calories (perhaps after they quit making Pepsi Free?) and they developed Pepsi One in an effort to get men to buy it. (Because apparently one calorie is manly where none is not?!?!) ---
**Author:** ![honkytonkwillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@honkytonkwillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/honkytonkwillie)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2002, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-just-one-calorie/120690/14 "2002-07-26T09:31:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by k2dave \*\*\*I don’t beleive this to be true. AFAIK The calories come from the additives to the aftificial sweetner to make measurable. \*\* It’s not the additives, it’s the compound itself. Check out [HowStuffWorks](http://www.howstuffworks.com/question536.htm) for a simple quote. Go [here](http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/aspartame/aspartameh.html) for a good history of aspartame. In the third paragraph they talk about its sweetness potency relative to sucrose.