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takyon writes:

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.

Also at Bloomberg and CNBC.

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."

Original Submission