Why Does Diet Soda Taste Bad?

I actually dislike the mouthfeel of HFCS.

Ya know, I always hear that diet sodas make no impact in weight loss..... However, considering that I can toss back 5 or more cans of soda a day easily, I'm not exactly going to switch to the high fructose variety, and will be sticking with diet. I fail to see how removing 1000+ calories from your diet can't make a difference.

Chicken Girl said:
I actually dislike the mouthfeel of HFCS.[...]

Me too. It feels thick, like your mouth is furry afterwards.

i agree alvin. if i started drinking regular soda i would pack on pounds from the additional calories! i was raised on diet soda so i dont think theres a flavor problem. my favorite is tab which still contains saccarine (how do you spell that?). plus my glucose is slightly elevated and all the extra sugar would really harm my health. i used to enjoy a coke 2 once in awhile but they no longer sell it here. that tasted exactly like regular soda by using 1/2 the sugar and blending in nutrasweet for the other 1/2.

This reminds me of this blog I have read about a woman who is doing her best to lose weight, but can't cut out the soda. Funny thing is, she doesn't even consider diet soda an option. That is a complete lack of common sense.

As Alvin points out above "However, considering that I can toss back 5 or more cans of soda a day easily, I'm not exactly going to switch to the high fructose variety, and will be sticking with diet. I fail to see how removing 1000+ calories from your diet can't make a difference."

I would think that it is a safe assumption, and complete common sense, that cutting out regular soda in favor of diet will reduce one's caloric intake and therefore NOT contribute to obesity. Chalking this study up as a ploy by the "big corporations" to sell more cans is irresponsible. If people are going to replace a regular can of soda with a can of diet soda, that is NOT selling more cans, that is one for one substitution.

Since I started avoiding HFCS whenever possible, I can't stand the feel or taste of it.

I tend to stay with water most of the time.

Brian

I'm one of those people who HATES the taste of diet soda. HATE. But then, I drink a can of pop maybe once a month(if that), and I rarely am able to drink the whole can, so I don't feel the need to switch :)

It's all a matter of individual preference, regular soda is too sweet for me and leaves my mouth feeling 'coated'.

It's funny.. I rather have Diet Coke than regular Coke... Same for Pepsi... there are some diet or light products in the market that are better tasting than their regular counterparts.... well, it's all about taste.

I'm not a soda drinker, so I don't know the answer: is the taste/mouth feel difference between cane sugar sodas and HFCS sodas detectable? Jones Soda is the most commonly available cane sugar soda, but I think Coca-cola in Mexico is cane sugar-based.

The diet sodas I like the best: Caffeine free diet Pepsi, caffeine free diet Coke and diet Sierra Mist. I also agree too - when I had a really bad soda habit - 5 cans a day easy - I hate to imagine what would happen tomy weight if those were regular sodas I was drinking.

Jones Soda actually has been made with HFCS for a while now, though they have a "naturals" line that's made with sucrose.

And I detest the mouthfeel of HFCS as well, it's thick and coats my mouth.

Quito, I can tell the difference between HFCS soda and sucrose soda - the HFCS is thicker, while sucrose-sweetened soda usually has a more clean mouthfeel.

I can't stand the mouthfeel of syrupy-sweet HFCS sodas. I can down diet soda without having to worry about all of the excess calories.

I'm actually quite addicted to Coke Zero, regular and cherry. I never bought the diet soda/weight gain link. I think your propensity to gain weight is linked to drinking diet soda, not the other way around. (In other words, people who need/want to lose weight drink diet soda. Sometimes they fail at weight loss so they remain overweight but diet soda is not at fault.)

FitFiend says it best... You know, not everything in the world is a scam or scheme to make more money! There are still scientists and companies and researchers and developers who believe in the old standard of actually putting in time, money, and effort to make things BETTER for consumers... And I'd love to hear the explanation of your statement that it's a ploy to sell more cans of soda, when the purpose is to convert regular soda drinkers to a diet version.

I also fail to follow your logic that cutting out sugary sodas won't help people lose weight or prevent them from gaining. Why do you think schools are removing it from their machines?

While I agree that it's entirely possible that someone making a switch to diet will take their 20 can a day habit, add up the total calories they're saving, and pig out - it's highly unlikely. And if you're not a soda drinker in the first place, why would you choose one or the other? I just think that your cynicism here is way too powerful.

THINK before you hit the "publish" button...

Anyway, I was raised on Diet Coke. I can't stand the regular syrupy sweet stuff. I'm even particular about my brand... I don't like Diet Pepsi, and I won't touch anything else (Diet Dr. Pepper, etc.) simply because I don't like those flavors - diet or not. So even if they did invent this, I'd likely still stick with the same old DC that's kept me satisfied and free from drinking my calories for 30 years now.

Quito said:
I'm not a soda drinker, so I don't know the answer: is the taste/mouth feel difference between cane sugar sodas and HFCS sodas detectable? Jones Soda is the most commonly available cane sugar soda, but I think Coca-cola in Mexico is cane sugar-based.[...]

Coke here is still sugar cane sweetened, and I could tell a difference between American coke and our coke here.

The cheap generic sodas are mostly sweetened with part sugar, part aspartame to cut costs here, instead of HFCS. What I find funny is a ton of people who say they'd never drink diet because "sweetener tastes funny" are drinking soda with sweetener without even realizing.

I think aspartame is pure evil, and it probably would be banned if there wasn't such big business (read "money") tied up in it with the soft drink industry. One summer many years ago I drank copious amounts of diet a&w rootbeer, sweetened with aspartame. I'd never drank diet pop (or much pop at all) before. That was the same summer I developed migraines. I can't prove the two were linked but I've always suspected they are. Now if I need a sweet drink fix I occasionally have one of the new flavoured waters sweetened with splenda.

Interestingly, I also find that if I drink enough water and am well hydrated I NEVER crave sweet drinks but if I forget to have enough water then I start to crave sweet drinks right away. If I down some water the craving goes away.

Just for all you non-believers out there...YES, I love diet soda and hate regular.
However, nobody (hint: some of you who have left comments) should be drinking 5 cans of pop a day! I have no problem with one or two a day, but years ago when I drank 6 or so, I suffered panic attacks. Can't prove the link...but we all know we should be downing the water anyway :)

Quito said:
I'm not a soda drinker, so I don't know the answer: is the taste/mouth feel difference between cane sugar sodas and HFCS sodas detectable? Jones Soda is the most commonly available cane sugar soda, but I think Coca-cola in Mexico is cane sugar-based.[...]

I live in Texas, where it's fairly easy to get sodas with cane sugar, like Coca-Cola from Mexico and Dr. Pepper from the Dublin, TX plant. I only drink diet drinks (both HCFS and cane sugar feel too heavy for me), but many of my friends who drink regular sodas swear that there's a difference.

I used to drink a lot of regular pop (I think I'm the only person in the world who calls it pop) in college and now I drink diet. I can definitely taste the difference, but it just takes some getting used to. For some weird reason, I can taste the difference between sugar free Rockstar (energy drink) and "low-carb" Rockstar. I guess they must be sweetened with different things, even though both of them have no calories (or maybe like 20 per can).

I love the study that suggests that diet soda makes people fat because it found that people who drank diet soda tended to be fat.

By this logic shopping at Lane Bryant makes women overweight because the average Lane Bryant shopper weighs more than the average non-Lane Bryant shopper.

Don't confuse correlation with causation.

I would really urge people who consume aspartame, especially daily, to check out some of the health concerns - just google "aspartame dangers" and check out one or two of the kazillion articles that pop up. You might choose to continue to consume it but at least you'll be informed, or maybe choose to cut back. Besides migraines and headaches, panic attacks HAVE been linked to aspartame, and a whole host of other unpleasant things, including cancer, brain damage and tumors, MS-like symptoms, and the list goes on.

I absolutely believe this stuff really can fry your brain. If I was to drink sodapop occasionally, I'd drink the stuff with sugar rather than the diet stuff because a few extra calories are better than the alternative. And it's naive to think that if it really was bad for you "they" would have banned it by now. This is big business, and money talks.

Hey there Soozeequeue,

Yes, if you google "aspartame dangers" you will get a lot of articles about how dangerous aspartame is. This is kind of selective research though. Similarly, if you google "aspartame urban legend" you'll find that a lot of what goes around about aspartame has no validity whatsoever. Not only that, but it's been approved as being safe by government AND independent groups such as the American Medical Association, American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, World Health Organizationm, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and government regulators in more than 100 countries.

See:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp
and
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990167,00.html

I drink a couple cans of coke a day. Diet soda is not an option. It's terrible tasting, I'd rather drink water. Soda is 100% for taste. What other use does it have?

As long as you track your calorie intake, 300 calories a day extra shouldnt hurt too bad. I can drink a can of coke with a healthy meal and the whole thing will be way better. So it all evens out... maybe...

Great Lane Bryant analogy, Faddist.

I see articles that confuse causation/correlation all the time and I often rant about it (boring those around me). I think the mainstream media either doesn't notice the distinction of finds that nuance gets in the way of a snappy headline.

I have to admit I'm curious about this whole mouthfeel thing. To me, diet soda seems to TASTE nastier (though I drink it anyway), not feel nastier. But I'd love to find out I'm wrong. I grew up drinking Coke and still miss it. Diet drinks just arent' the same.

I can't stand regular soda, either. It's too syrupy for my tastes and it isn't as fizzy or something. I grew up not drinking much soda, but when we did buy it we always had diet, not regular. About the only regular soda I like is root beer, but I rarely drink it. I do drink a few cans of soda a day...2-3 max lately. I used to drink more, but I figure it's better and cheaper to drink water.

And although they say diet soda makes you fat, I think that if you have a hardcore soda habit, you can't go wrong if you just switch to diet (WITHOUT overcompensating in some other area of your diet, that is). If you're currently drinking 1500 calories a week from sodas, switching to diet will reduce your calorie intake by 1500...in three weeks, you'll drop a pound or so.

My boyfriend bought a can of regular coke the other day and I had a sip - must be the first taste of regular soft drink I've had in a LONG time, because I nearly spat it out and had him pissing himself laughing at my disgusted reaction. It's feral! I'd much prefer the mouth-feel of Coke Zero to regular Coke. Ugh.

"If we could make diet soda taste better, it would be a big step in fighting the obesity epidemic," Schmidt said." :)

Oh my, I can't believe they really think that diet soda's better taste would actually aid fighting obesity!

Okay, faddist, if you're satisfied that aspartame has not yet been definitively proven to be harmful, then fill your boots. I think I'll keep erring on the side of caution, especially with a drink that is chemical laden and devoid of any nutritional value. I just can't see the upside of drinking the stuff. By the way, I worked for one of those "independent organizations" you refer to (my country's version of it, anyway) and guess who their biggest corporate sponsor was - a major producer of diet cola, surprise, surprise.

Soozee,

There must be a bit of a misunderstanding. "Independent organizations" don't have "corporate sponsors" (that's what makes them independent).

The upside of drinking Coke is that people like it. I don't drink aspartame because I think it tastes bad. But I'm not sure spreading misinformation is the best thing to do on a site where people might be looking for health information because it tends to lessen the impact of those warnings for actual dangers.

What is up with this site sometimes?

Seriously, aspertame has been studied for over 20 years by the FDA, academic institutions, the European Union, and is arguably the most studied food additive EVER, and yet nothing has EVER been shown to be harmful about it by any reputable, peer reviewed, double blind study.

No, instead there is this boneheaded assumption that anything man-made is immediately bad for you, but ingesting St. John's wort, and the rest of the placebos foisted on the American public (all away from the overseeing eye of the FDA of course), is completely acceptable.

First, here's clue one for everyone of you holistic, get back to nature types:
Everything on this planet, from oregano to oil is ALL natural.
There is no such thing as a "man-made subtstance".
At best, there are only man-assembled substances.

There is nothing nutritionally, spiritually, morally, or inherently superior about "natural" products.

And to be honest, "man-made" products have a MUCH higher probability of being good for you than natural substances *gasp!*

Why do I say that?
Because think of it like this:
Which has a higher chance of being assembled properly, a man made car, or a car "grown" and randomly assembled by nature over millions of years?

Which has a higher chance of being beneficial to the human body, a pill analyzed, studied, and intentionally assembled for certain properties that produce certain results, or a substance that has brewed in the bottom of a swamp for a million years that has no inherent purpose other than what people decide to use it for?

I'm not arguing that everything man-made is beneficial, but rather that this whole kick against anything "artificial" is absolutely insane.
Of course, someone may say "Well, look, natural sugar is healthier than high fructose corn syrup", and they may well be right. But I didn't say ALL natural stuff was bad, nor did I say all man made stuff was good.
What I am saying is that something done with a specific intention has a much higher chance of accomplishing that intention than something that happens completely randomly.

As for the study correlating diet soda to obesity, please, spare us the propaganda.

The study is so specious and vague that the only reason to post it is to smear and denigrate aspertame.

Yes, you may have qualified it with "I'm not saying diet soda causes obesity", but cmon, you obviously don't think it's good for people, even though there is no good reason to think that way.

And anyone who uses intuition and feelings to judge a foods healthfulness or quality is most likely going to be winning a future Darwin award.

As relates directly to the post, I personally prefer the taste of diet soda to regular, being that regular tastes like pure syrup, IMO.

I dislike drinking any type of soda because of the sticky taste it leaves in my mouth, even the diet varieties. However, there is ONE soda that doesn't leave that feeling... 7UP. Ever since they switched to all natural ingredients (read: regular sugar, not HFCS), it tastes much better.
Plus you don't get the conspiracy theorists freaking out about the artificial sweetener giving you cancer, et cetera.

Try it some time, it's much better.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about aspartame. It's definitely not the demonic sweetener that people think it is. It's just two amino acids that naturally occur anyway that are linked together. When you eat it, your body breaks it down into the amino acids and your liver takes care of it, just like any other digestive process. I've never experienced any negative effects from it and I honestly can't tell that it has any real aftertaste.

I do notice that I actually prefer diet soda with aspartame to diet soda with Splenda. I like Splenda better in hot things, like oatmeal, but in soda, I prefer aspartame. I don't like the diet sodas with Ace-K (acesulfame potassium) either (I think Coke Zero and Pepsi One have it, not sure).

I will say that diet A&W root beer is the best tasting diet soda I've ever had. It's a big favorite among my coworkers (btw, I work with a RD and even she drinks diet soda. She doesn't see it as being that dangerous).

I don't like the taste of any sodas now. I used to have about a 5-a-day Coke habit, then I switched to Diet Coke. Now, I drink mostly water and when I have had a soda of any sort I haven't been able to drink it.

To whom it may consern:

"Magua's heart is twisted. He would make himself into what twisted him."

HaHa!! Make that...

To whom it may concern:

"Magua's heart is twisted. He would make himself into what twisted him."

Not to mention sugar promotes tooth decay! I have been drinking Diet Coke since the late seventies (I was in grade school) and had florided water...I am happy to say I have never had a cavity and never will. I am also diabetic...thank God for Aspertame and Slendid!

there are new reports from the dental community that all sodas can erode enamel and harm your teeth due to acids not sugar. they claims that citrus based are the worst along with the flavored waters and iced teas. you should avoid brushing till at least 1/2 hour after drinking these beverages because they soften your enamel while you are drinking them and the enamel should be allowed to reharden before brushing. they also suggest using a straw, having soda only at meals, and never sipping a soda over several hours. i am a sipper so i try to rinse frequently with water.

Yes. Diet soda really sucks. But, I have learned to enjoy it.

Seems to me that the most useful way to think about dieting and weight loss, is to think in terms of getting healthier. Diet sodas are "recreational foods" that don't contribute to becoming more healthy. I never touch the stuff. We just have to decide if we're willing to not eat stuff that's bad for us, and if we make that choice, then keep our promise to ourselves.