SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Coca-Cola sales surge after Diet Coke reboot
Coca-Cola Co beat Wall Street estimates with quarterly results on Tuesday, citing more demand for Coke Zero Sugar and new flavors under its Diet Coke brand as overall revenue topped expectations by around $300 million.
[...] The company said the launch of its popular low-calorie Diet Coke in sleeker tins and flavors including ginger-lime and feisty cherry drove Diet Coke volumes up 3 percent, marking a return to growth for the brand in North America.
[...] The strong results come as Coke diversifies its portfolio to include more low-sugar drinks with fewer calories to appeal to consumers reaching for healthier produce, while simultaneously spending more on marketing its core Coca-Cola brands.
Meanwhile, at Experimental Biology 2018:
Increased awareness of the health consequences of eating too much sugar has fueled a dramatic uptick in the consumption of zero-calorie artificial sweeteners in recent decades. However, new research finds sugar replacements can also cause health changes that are linked with diabetes and obesity, suggesting that switching from regular to diet soda may be a case of 'out of the frying pan, into the fire.' [...] The team fed different groups of rats diets high in glucose or fructose (kinds of sugar), or aspartame or acesulfame potassium (common zero-calorie artificial sweeteners). After three weeks, the researchers saw significant differences in the concentrations of biochemicals, fats and amino acids in blood samples.
The results suggest artificial sweeteners change how the body processes fat and gets its energy. In addition, they found acesulfame potassium seemed to accumulate in the blood, with higher concentrations having a more harmful effect on the cells that line blood vessels. "We observed that in moderation, your body has the machinery to handle sugar; it is when the system is overloaded over a long period of time that this machinery breaks down," Hoffmann said. "We also observed that replacing these sugars with non-caloric artificial sweeteners leads to negative changes in fat and energy metabolism."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday April 25 2018, @12:48PM (4 children)
Corn syrup coke tastes weird compared to sugar based coke I grew up with. Yeah yeah I know genuine sugar coke is available at some effort, but at restaurants or bars or someones house, no chance of "real sugar coke" just the gross cough syrup stuff.
On the other hand diet coke tastes just like it did in the 80s for better or worse and people get used to drinking weird tastes. Personally I think diet coke makes the best mixed drinks with a nice rum, but I don't drink much so maybe thats crazy talk. Just something about the interaction of the artificial sweetener and the bite of the alcohol just sets off all the memories of "this is a good drink". I guess compared to blue kool aid grape drank about 50:50 with vodka from when I was 18 and drinking was new and exciting, its comparatively pretty classy...
From a low carb diet or paleo-ish diet drinking a coke isn't healthy regardless, but remember those diets are not religious purity laws, more like environmental harm minimization. If what I'm primarily doing is drinking something really tasty that's horrible for my health it'll be a horribly unhealthy but delicious Bundaberg or Sprecher root beer product. If I just need bulk liquid flow to wash down a chezburger at a restaurant with the family, the healthiest caffeine liquid is likely diet coke, so there you go.
Lack of love for regular classic coke is kind of like the lack of love for McDonalds in the paleo diet sense... if you're eating healthy you're not eating that junk, and if you're eating UN-healthy (because once in a while, why not?) then again don't eat that junk. So why would I ever eat McD? Well, I can answer that with, "when there's no other alternative". Ditto corn syrup coke.
Is talking about Bundaberg excessively hipster in the sense of bragging that its expensive and rare and I can afford it easily and it tastes really good and locally the local distributor is new so you probably don't know about it and how cool and alternative it is? Talking about it I kinda feel like making a shark face selfie while wearing my low cut hipster jeans and stroking my fabulous beard and eating a tofu soy based product to excess. Well regardless of hideous modern anti-social interaction, the product still tastes good and I'd never drink a sugary coke voluntarily given a superior alternative, and technically diet coke is a superior alternative.
If you drink two or more liters per week of corn syrup soda you don't notice how gross it is until you go cold turkey for a couple weeks or months and then trying to drink it is just gross like cough syrup thats boiling in your mouth and that weird corn syrup after taste. Its like smoking, smokers don't think its gross, but people who don't smoke or quit are generally turned off by yellow teeth and ash smells. Corn syrup soda, aside from being incredibly unhealthy, is just gross.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @02:36PM (3 children)
I used to like diet coke but couldn't drink it anymore after they switched to nutrasweet. Aspartame gives me a headache.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:10PM (1 child)
Diet Coke has had Nutrasweet / Aspartame for most of the time it's been in existence, if not the whole time. They only recently started experimenting with Splenda (Sucralose) instead of Aspartame.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:24PM
The German market was different. Saccharin/cyclamate was used for sweetening before aspartame took over.
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Wednesday April 25 2018, @04:53PM
Diet Coke was only made without Nutrasweet from August 1982 through about April 1983.
Then it was a blend of aspartame and saccharin for a short time, then Nutrasweet alone.
I like the new flavored Diet Cokes, myself. Particularly the Ginger Lime version. Mango is good, too.
And re: New Coke: New Coke was Diet Coke with HFCS instead of NutraSweet.