# soft drinks=huge amount of sugar.Diet drinks=zero sugar. Why not meet halfway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** soda-softdrinks\ **Created:** [September 5, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768 "2012-09-05T17:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/21 "2012-09-05T23:05:56Z")
There are some lightly sweetened sodas available. I like [DRY Soda](http://www.drysoda.com/), which has less than half the sugar of normal soft drinks like Coke. Their orange and vanilla flavors are pretty good, but they don’t make cola. ---
**Author:** ![just\_some\_guy5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@just\_some\_guy5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/just_some_guy5)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/22 "2012-09-05T23:09:45Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > [ul] > [li][Pepsi Next](https://www.facebook.com/PepsiNext)[/li][li][Dr Pepper 10](http://www.drpepper.com/text/products/drpepperten/nutrition/)[/li][li][Coca-Cola C2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_C2) (discontinued)[/li][/ul] I thought C2 was great. Unfortunately, others did not agree. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/23 "2012-09-06T00:52:47Z")
I keep seeing Pepsi Next, but haven’t tried it yet. Do they offer a Caffeine Free version of it? It’s caffeine I’m avoiding more than sugar, but I can do both with diet caffeine free coke/pepsi/dr. pepper. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/24 "2012-09-06T01:56:42Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Back when I drank sugared soda, yup, diet soda tasted terrible to me. I’d try it from time to time (either because regular soda wasn’t available, or because I thought to myself, “might not be a bad idea to cut some calories”), but I’d always turn my nose up at it. > > Then, I was diagnosed with diabetes, and cut out regular soda “cold turkey”. I got used to the taste of diet soda within a few days (weeks at the most), and now, it tastes just fine to me. 🙂 Right. Honestly sugar-soda fans, if you drink diet and nothing but (no hfcs or sugar drinks) for 2-4 weeks, then sugared sodas will taste weird, and diet will taste right. One thing that helps is fresh lemon or lime squeezed into the diet drink. Pepsi had a 25% calorie lemon cola for years. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/25 "2012-09-06T02:02:24Z")
> [@just\_some\_guy5](#): > > I thought C2 was great. Unfortunately, others did not agree. Well, true or not, the basic marketing campaign for Coke Zero is that it tastes exactly like regular Coke. That doesn’t leave a lot of marketing room for any half-sugar product. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/26 "2012-09-06T02:05:51Z")
For anyone contemplating switching from regular to diet soda, what worked for me was to change to a different brand. I stopped drinking Pepsi and started drinking diet Vernor’s Ginger Ale and diet root beer. After less than a month, I could drink diet Pepsi (though i found I preferred Diet Coke With Lime) and couldn’t recall how its taste differed from the regular stuff. I now find the regular stuff too sweet & “sticky” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/27 "2012-09-06T02:49:11Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I drink diet soft drinks almost exclusively now but, yeah, there’s a difference between Diet Coke and regular Coke. Regular Coke, to me, has a sweeter, stickier taste and feel to it. It also seems to be ever-so-slightly more viscous, but that could be my imagination. I prefer Diet Coke to regular Coke nowadays. It just has a “drier” taste and doesn’t leave my lips sticky after drinking. Note that Diet Coke, when it was originally developed in the early 80s, was **not** formulated to taste anything like Coca-Cola. At that time, Diet Pepsi was beating the pants off of Tab (Coca-Cola’s diet cola) in the marketplace, and so, Diet Coke was intended to be closer in taste to the segment leader – Diet Pepsi. (The flopped New Coke of the mid 80s was actually based on the Diet Coke formula, using HCFS instead of aspartame.) As **dzeiger** notes, Coke Zero, OTOH, was formulated to be closer in taste to regular Coke. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/28 "2012-09-06T04:16:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Note that Diet Coke, when it was originally developed in the early 80s, was **not** formulated to taste anything like Coca-Cola. IIRC, wasn’t New Coke the same formula as Diet Coke, except with sugar/HFCS? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/29 "2012-09-06T04:32:32Z")
After a while if you drink diet sodas you begin to prefer the taste of the diet sodas and real sugars sodas taste so sweet and cloying as to be unplatable. There’s a relatively small market (IMO) for an in between taste. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/30 "2012-09-06T04:41:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Right. Honestly sugar-soda fans, if you drink diet and nothing but (no hfcs or sugar drinks) for 2-4 weeks, then sugared sodas will taste weird, and diet will taste right. If you think it’s just a matter of tasting weird, then you aren’t tasting what some of us experience. Diet drinks taste like poison to me. Training myself to enjoy diet sodas–assuming it were possible–would take an order of magnitude more willpower than simply switching to water (which is what I did, for the most part). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/31 "2012-09-06T05:16:56Z")
I think the demand for less sugar, no artificial sweetener drinks is met by the new “vitamin” drinks, like VitaminWater. Not as sweet, about half the calories of coke. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/32 "2012-09-06T10:55:31Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > If you think it’s just a matter of tasting weird, then you aren’t tasting what some of us experience. Diet drinks taste like poison to me. Training myself to enjoy diet sodas–assuming it were possible–would take an order of magnitude more willpower than simply switching to water (which is what I did, for the most part). As you say, it is all a matter of personal taste. What I find weird is when people assume that everyone tastes this alleged aftertaste. I’ve been a type one diabetic for nineteen years and the amount of times someone has decided I need to hear about how bad sweeteners are, from alleged health issues (whilst ignoring the well known health issues with consuming too much sugar) to the aftertaste that is OH SO DEFINITELY there, is depressingly high. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/33 "2012-09-06T11:49:54Z")
Whatever trick aspertame uses to convince my taste buds that it is sweet, it works by itself - but does not work in the presence of sugar. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/34 "2012-09-06T12:13:12Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Do artificial sweeteners really taste that bad to some people? . Definitely yes. By the way, since the OP refered to drinks with 1% sugar, you can buy those at least over here (mineral water+flavouring+very little sugar). What’s missing is something a bit more sweet. I buy syrup and mix it with water to get what is my ideal level of sweetness in a drink. Not sure why there isn’t a middle ground commercially available, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/35 "2012-09-06T13:08:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > IIRC, wasn’t New Coke the same formula as Diet Coke, except with sugar/HFCS? Actually, found my answer [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke). > [@](#): > > The controversial New Coke, introduced in 1985, used a version of the Diet Coke recipe that contained high fructose corn syrup and had a slightly different balance of ingredients. It’s not sourced, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/36 "2012-09-06T13:51:02Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > Now, if only I could find a sugar-free (but not artificially sweetened) substitute for chocolate, I’d be set. They do have sugar free chocolates that use sugar alcohols (like maltitol) for the sweetening. They taste great. Be warned\*, if you eat a whole bag of that stuff you’re in for an ugly, ugly evening. \*From personal experience. It rivaled my “Roasted Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, oh what the hell, let’s double the garlic” experiment. Open the windows, put a clothespin on your nose and hope for the best. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/37 "2012-09-06T14:44:20Z")
Tropicana has been marketing an orange juice that has half the sugar of regular. As far as I can tell, they just cut it with water. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/38 "2012-09-07T00:10:33Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > [ul] > [li][Pepsi Next](https://www.facebook.com/PepsiNext)[/li][li][Dr Pepper 10](http://www.drpepper.com/text/products/drpepperten/nutrition/)[/li][li][Coca-Cola C2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_C2) (discontinued)[/li][/ul] Dr Pepper 10 is delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/39 "2012-09-07T04:29:28Z")
Because it was on sale for 99 cents, I tried a bottle of Safeway’s Refreshe diet cola. I should have known it was a bad sign when the cash register didn’t recognize its own store-brand drink, and it had to be rung up as a generic “Grocery Item.” I’m a longtime diet drinker, so I’m fine with the taste of artificial sweetener, but My God this stuff was awful. If you broke open a thermometer and some shotgun shells to dump mercury and gunpowder into a glass of 1960s-era Tab, that’s about what this would taste like. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768/40 "2012-09-08T02:33:31Z")
Bordering on OT, but the Sodastream-brand home soda maker syrups use a mix of Splenda and sugar; I believe they’re about half the calories of normal sodas. They advertise this as a health benefit, but it seems more like a practical issue: their 100% sugar “natural” sodas use a much bigger amount of syrup. I assume it’s easier to concentrate using Splenda. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soft-drinks-huge-amount-of-sugar-diet-drinks-zero-sugar-why-not-meet-halfway/633768.md?page=3)