Why do sugary drinks still exist?

[Cazzle]

Your office got a new typewriter? Where do you keep it, next to the photostat machine?

If I drink softdrink, Coke Zero tends to be my beverage of choice because it tastes just like “real” Coke… but if I ever have a real Coke, the illusion is shattered.

[Idlewild]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

I think the thing diet drinkers are generally very bad at communicating is that we all got used to the taste. I often hear diet soda consumers insist they like diet better than non-diet, and that is certainly the case with me. What people tend to leave out is that they also thought it tasted like shit at first and had to get used to it. I don`t know why people do it except that they’re bad communicators, but it’s my personal suspicion that virtually everyone who drinks diet thought it was gross the first time they tried it.

So why persevere? Because there’s no calories and once you`re used to it, it really tastes just as good as the calorie laden version. Regular soda tastes cloyingly sweet and has a nasty after taste to me now. I swear I honestly like diet better and no, I didn’t always.

On the other hand, to answer the OP, it’s entirely reasonable to not want to drink something you find unpleasant for X duration until you get used to the taste and actually enjoy it.

I’m used to the taste of diet soda and I don’t think it tastes as good as the sugary stuff. Diet Dr. Pepper is almost as good. The rest - well, there’s an aftertaste.

Yet I drink the stuff anyway, because I have an incurable sweet tooth, a caffeine habit, and I can’t afford the calories from sugar. But I’m not going to pretend it tastes as good.

[Grrr]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

I think the thing diet drinkers are generally very bad at communicating is that we all got used to the taste. I often hear diet soda consumers insist they like diet better than non-diet, and that is certainly the case with me. What people tend to leave out is that they also thought it tasted like shit at first and had to get used to it. I don`t know why people do it except that they’re bad communicators, but it’s my personal suspicion that virtually everyone who drinks diet thought it was gross the first time they tried it.

So why persevere? Because there’s no calories and once you`re used to it, it really tastes just as good as the calorie laden version. Regular soda tastes cloyingly sweet and has a nasty after taste to me now. I swear I honestly like diet better and no, I didn’t always.

On the other hand, to answer the OP, it’s entirely reasonable to not want to drink something you find unpleasant for X duration until you get used to the taste and actually enjoy it.

This is exactly how I got started on skim milk. About 10 years ago I went on this health kick. I’m such a big milk drinker I knew I had to switch to skim milk or no milk at all.

If memory serves me correctly I didn’t take long for me to get used to it either. About a month. Now if I try to drink whole milk; it taste like a thick sour glass of crap.

I would do this with sodas but I only drink about two or three in a month so it’s really not an issue with me.

[tumbleddown]

@Batsinma_Belfry

I don’t drink many sodas, but the diet ones trgger my migraines and asthma.

Same here, a few swallows of a Diet Coke and I start getting a screaming “who drove that railroad spike into my temple” type of headache, even if I hadn’t noticed that there was a sweetener in the product.

[LouisB]

Why does sexual intercourse still exist when masturbation will result in an orgasm?

[Mosier]

@Markxxx

As for empty calories, some people can afford them. A two litre bottle of Coke is what like 800 calories. Now I eat 1,800 calories a day. I’m not gonna use 45% of my daily caloric intake on sugar. But that’s a personal choice.

I have never met anyone who drank a two liter bottle of coke in a day. I’m a soda junkie and i end up drinking a two liter a WEEK.

[Max_the_Immortal]

I prefer sugar-free soda. No, it doesn’t taste quite as good, but the texture is much better; sugary soda feels sticky in comparison. I also don’t like the feel of all that raw sugar being dumped into my system.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

But sodas? Pop? Soft drinks? Look, sugar is only a means to an end (well, okay, except for some baked goods, but that’s not what I’m discussing). It tastes good, and that’s it, nothing but empty useless calories. Which means that once something comes along that tastes as good without the calories, it becomes obsolete. Useless.

Count me in as another who CAN taste the difference. What’s more, if I have too much artificial sweetener in one day, it’ll cause an IBD attack. So if I do drink soda, it’ll be regular soda, even though I’d diabetic. I’ll just take a little more insulin. I also keep regular soda in the house in case of low blood sugar attacks, and for when I’m sick and can’t eat anything but need some calories… It’s a cheap, quick way to boost the blood sugar. And my diabetic instructor has told me to drink the Sprite if I can’t really eat when I’m sick.

[Nancarrow]

Count me in as yet another person for whom all known artificial sweeteners taste like Satan’s sweaty arse-crack. Add to that, that I’m a thin, borderline underweight kind of guy who has never and will never need to watch my calories, and there’s the OP’s answer. What I don’t get is why no-one’s come up with an artificial sweetener that doesn’t taste like demonic dangleberry. Or why some of my dearest friends actually seem to enjoy regularly felching the Prince of Darkness. Anyway, enjoy your Diet Coke!

[PatriotGrrrl]

I’m curious - am I the only one who thinks artificial sweeteners are just fine in fruit flavored soda, but nasty in colas?

It really annoys me when a small store or restaurant will have several flavors of sugary sodas, but only one flavor of diet soda - and its always diet coke.

[I_Am_The_Lorax]

I can tell the difference. Regular is too syrupy, diet is refreshing. I also use Sweet ‘n’ Low in my coffee, so many of you may not trust me. It may not be the best, but it’s what I’m used to, and it’s better than HFCS.

[Erdosain]

@Mosier

I have never met anyone who drank a two liter bottle of coke in a day. I’m a soda junkie and i end up drinking a two liter a WEEK.

I think you need to rethink your definition of “junkie.” Hell, sometimes I drink four liters of soda in a day. Diet, now, but when I was young and had some calories to spare, I’d drink a two liter bottle of Coke a day, minimum, usually more. I imagine many people are the same, especially those you drink it at work.

[Maastricht]

@tumbleddown

Same here, a few swallows of a Diet Coke and I start getting a screaming “who drove that railroad spike into my temple” type of headache, even if I hadn’t noticed that there was a sweetener in the product.

Thirded. Drinking an entire can of diet soda will give me a moderate headache lasting for at least a whole day. It tokk me a while to make the connection, though. Now I don’t drink soda at all.

[chorpler]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

I think the thing diet drinkers are generally very bad at communicating is that we all got used to the taste. I often hear diet soda consumers insist they like diet better than non-diet, and that is certainly the case with me. What people tend to leave out is that they also thought it tasted like shit at first and had to get used to it. I don`t know why people do it except that they’re bad communicators, but it’s my personal suspicion that virtually everyone who drinks diet thought it was gross the first time they tried it.

Nah, I always liked diet sodas and other drinks just fine. Couldn’t ever really taste the difference unless I was switching back and forth. I can now (or at least I can tell there’s a difference in texture; regular soda is thick and syrupy while diet soda is more like water), but when I first started drinking diet soda as a kid I didn’t notice any aftertaste or anything like other people complain about.

[chorpler]

@Little_Bird

Children should not drink artificially sweetened drinks either.

Why on earth not?

[Gary_Robson]

What bothers me are the drinks that say SUGAR FREE, and then have an ingredients list that includes five different kinds of sugar. Why on Earth do our labeling laws allow this?

@Mosier

I have never met anyone who drank a two liter bottle of coke in a day. I’m a soda junkie and i end up drinking a two liter a WEEK.

You’re not a soda junkie. That’s not even one full glass a day.

When I was in college, my roommate and I went through ten flats (24 twelve-ounce cans per flat) per week of Mountain Dew. We did share some of that with friends on the weekend, but still…

[Unauthorized_Cinnamon]

All diet sodas and drink mixes with artificial sweeteners still taste pretty gross to me, whether it’s aspartame or sucralose. I’ve found I actually do like xylitol sweetener (Ideal brand), but it isn’t in any commercial drinks. Also, it’s veryvery expensive compared to sugar.

I agree with you that the health risks of too many calories are vastly, hugely more significant than any risks of using artificial sweeteners, but lots of people are idiots about stuff like that - anti-vax, toxin cleansing, di-hydrogen monoxide, etc.

[gaffa]

I’ve never been able to abide any drink with aspartame, but I’ve found I enjoy those with Splenda. It doesn’t taste exactly like sugar, but it doesn’t have the vinyl aftertaste of aspartame. My first one was Pepsi One, but that seems to have disappeared from the store shelves around here, so I’ve switched to Diet-Rite/Diet RC.

Another sweetener that I love is Stevia and the more refined commercial versions Truvia and Purevia.

[Nava]

Because some times, the best way to stop the dizziness is by getting enough salt, sugar and/or caffeine in. And rather than run an exhaustive study any time I feel dizzy, I just grab a can of Real Coke and a handful of salty peanuts (aka Peanuts as God Intended).

When all I want is a drink, I drink water.

[overlyverbose]

They still exist for the same reason that cookies made with real sugar still exist. Most people know that they’re not good for you, but sugar tastes good and people like to eat and drink things they like.

Personally, I like Diet Coke - a lot - but like a few others, it gives me a headache. Regular Coke does not. And I like it even better than Diet Coke. If I’m going to have a treat, I’d rather have something that feels like a real splurge than shortchange myself on something that’ll make my head hurt. Edited to add that Coke makes me feel much better after a fight with a stomach bug than anything else. I don’t know if it’s the carbonation or the syrup, but it generally takes away that nasty post-barf headache like nothing else can.

I’m the same way with anything I splurge on. Why bother with cookies like Snackwells if I can have a small bit of the real deal and feel satisfied without any negative stomach repercussions?