Why Does Diet Soda Taste Bad?

I have been drinking diet sodas for a long time and the high fructose corn syrup makes the regular sodas way too sweet for my taste.

Although diet sodas do not contribute to obesity, the sodium content can increase your apetite.
I try to reserve them as a treat and drink mostly water (flavored sometimes).

Some of the things that are good for us do have a bad taste. Medicine is a good example for this. It may not have a pleasant taste but it's good for our sick body.

jc said:
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?[...]

I drink soda 100% for the caffeine. It keeps me going, so I drink diet. It is not a taste issue for me. Also, the bubbles fill me up. This is gonna sound like disordered eating, but if I eat an apple + a can of diet soda as a snack, I'm full. If I eat an apple + water (which I do drink during the day, just not "as a food"), I'd also need a yogurt, some cheese, and cereal to feel full, so it would be a lot more calories.

I used to drink regular soda. In 7th grade, I was at a restaurant and ordered a Coke. The waiter asked me "Diet or regular?" I thought for a second and said "...Diet." After taking a sip of my Diet Coke, I concluded that Coke and Diet Coke tasted exactly the same and I couldn't believe that anyone would drink regular soda which is so bad for you when they could just as easily drink diet. I decided I would never drink regular Coke again. Last year, during my freshman year of college, I was working on a paper at 3 A.M and I was desperate for a caffeine fix. But horror of horrors...the vending machine was out of Diet Coke. Though I cringed at the thought of the extra calories, my GPA was at steak here. "Whatever," I thought, "I'll just get the regular". Me, a card-carrying member of the Clean-Plate Club, could NOT force down even a third of that bottle of Coke, even in my state of desperate caffeine desperation. It was sickeningly sweet, oddly spicy, and felt like cough syrup in my mouth. Funny that I couldn't even tell the difference all those years ago and now regular soda makes me physically ill.

Regular pop here in Canada (see, we say pop too) is sweetened with cane sugar rather than HFCS. I can't say that I've ever tried the American versions of full-sugar pop, or if I have, it's been a LONG time. I'm in the less than a can of pop a month camp, and my kids only get ginger ale (not diet) when they're sick or orange pop for special occasions; it's a beverage that definitely falls into the "treat" zone.

I think I prefer the taste of Diet Coke over regular Coke, but I don't like ingesting artificial sweeteners...at least sugar's natural, right? However, I can't bring myself to ingest what is it? 32 grams of sugar in a can of Coke? Eeeesh.

Even if it doesn't taste good to some because of some ingredients that brings out the flavor, maybe they can add a little flavoring to change it a bit.

Nate Cavanaugh said:
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.

Agreed. Well written. I totally agree.

I do not like Diet Soda at all. I do not get any real taste of it.

I definitely suffer from a soda addiction. I've limited down to about 1-3 cans a day, regular, not diet. I HATE HATE HATE the taste of diet soda. It taste like chemicals. I've been known to taste any type of artificial sweeteners, in soda, gum, etc. The closest substitute I've found is the new Diet Coke made with Splenda

I'll try anything with splenda, i like it as an additive- more than regular sugar. A nice low-cal treat is kool-aid made with splenda, then freeze it into popcicles..its great for the summer.

I have issues with diet soda because it gives off this weird aftertaste which lingers on my tongue. I have discovered that I can gradually learn to tolerate diet soda over time, and if I have it with a meal to deflect some of that aftertaste. Some are more nasty than others. I find I prefer diet rootbeer, ginger ale, and diet Dr. Pepper over diet Coke or diet Sprite. It's definitley a great way to cut a 100 or so calories from your daily intake if you enjoy drinking flavoured drinks!

It's the nasty new sweeteners, aspartame and splenda, that taste so foul. I have to be vigilant against ANYTHING containing them, the taste makes me want to gag, and now it is in everything, even yogurt. The other day I bought applesauce and it had splenda in it!! Absolutely disgusting. Saccharine was much better!! Fortunately I almost never drink soda of any kind, but it's horrible having to find that stuff in my regular food.

I would rather drink water than diet soda. It's just disgusting to me, and I'm not a picky eater. Tastes like a can of chemicals.

I drink regular soda, but I don't drink it every day. I like to have a two or three cans or bottles of "bubbly."

But nothing can get me to force down diet soda. MAYBE diet Dr. Pepper. MAYBE.

I really like Coca Cola. Pepsi too. And RC. A&W root beer. Like them all, have them as a treat, and don't apologize or feel bad about it.

I drink perhaps the equivalent of 4 cans of regular soda a year. I cannot rationalize drinking soda as anything but a treat (by which I mean a dessert in and of itself) since I gain weight so incredibly easy and would rather use those calories for something more substantial. But a nice ice cold full-bore-sugar Coca Cola is something for which there is no substitute. If it didn't have the debilitating crash and didn't make me gain weight, I'd drink a lot more of it.

Given the choice, I like it from a fountain, or the Mexican cane sugar version from a frosty glass bottle. People love to beat up on soda because it is nutritionally void (as if anyone's making the opposite case), but I can really enjoy a soda - savor it, even.

Dismiss it contemptuously as "flavored sugar water" like CSPI does all the time - but I enjoy it immensely nonetheless. It is unclear yet whether enjoying a nice Coke is a bigger vice than being a FOOD NAZI AND QUISLING OF THE NANNY STATE, but I'll leave that to others to consider.

Coca Cola is tasty. I enjoy it as a treat. It makes me hyper and then I crash. I enjoy the hyper part. I don't enjoy the crash part. Once every two months, I find that the price is worth it.

Diet soda, I drink fairly regularly. Some is not very good, and some is fairly surprising, such as the aforementioned Diet A&W Root Beer, which is probably the best tasting diet soda, in my opinion. When I want something sweet, Diet A&W hits the spot. I also like Fresca, which I find particularly refreshing on hot days.

I have been drinking diet sodas since the middle 80s when we received an aspartame-sweetened gumball in the mail from Searle. I have never had any kind of headache, digestive distress, exploding colon, nor have demons ever marched out of a nostril to wreak havoc on earth and turn all of the crucifixes upside down in the name of a New Order of the Aeons wherein large corporations and their industrially produced sweeteners enslave mankind, only to have natural/health food fans disemboweled by possessed wolverines for their contrarian attitudes.

I'm not denying that it is possible that aspartame has negative effects on people, but I've drunk enough diet soda to know that it has no effects - none whatsoever - on me. I've felt worse after a healthy meal with too much broccoli, frankly, than after any diet soda I've ever consumed.

The mark of a quality diet soda is the degree to which it covers up that nasty chemical aftertaste that most artificial sweeteners have. Saccharine seems to have the worst, which is why I refused to drink it as a kid, though my mother, who is thin, swears by Tab.

Then there is aspartame, which is really problematic in poor sodas.

Then there's sucralose, which is a pretty big improvement on aspartame.

Acesulfame Potassium, which I have read was not tested very thoroughly - though I haven't obsessed on it much so maybe this was an exaggeration, is what works in combination with aspartame to give Diet A&W its remarkably pleasing taste. Go figure.

Quite obviously, drinking a lot of soda makes no sense for anyone, but I'm getting a little tired of people making out soda to be the deadly killer du jour. If people can't stop themselves from drinking a 6 pack of full-sugar Coke a day, that's a problem with *them*, but I wouldn't want to live in a world where I could not enjoy an ice cold Coke in peace.

Because I am not a communist.

Iggy, your entire post made my day.

I am a 20 year old Senior in college who also works about 35 hours a week. I admit I cannot make it through my day without a few (7-8)Cokes. I can drink it in the can or from a fountain but not bottled (gets too warm and too flat too fast!). And you should never suggest i switch to diet. The taste is significantly different, the texture too, and it can ruin a perfectly good day in my opinion.

My friends buy me Coca Cola memorabilia as presents and they order me a soda before i even get to the restaurant. We go to IHOP once a week for weekend recaps and the staff there just brings me a Coke without asking.

Im sure some people do gain or lose weight depending on their soda intake but its different for everyone. So as someone who constantly gets lectures about her soda intake-lay off people! If you dont want to drink it, fine,DONT. But for those of us who choose to -stop lecturing. I eat healthily enough, i drink alot of soda, i lost 20 pounds (down to a svelte 117 and love it) rather than gained a freshman 15 a few years ago, i dont get migraines and ive never had a cavity. So rather than telling people your "horror" stories about how drinking soda is bring on the Apocalypse, save your breathe, have a drink and go enjoy your summer.

Obesity is HUGE (ignore the pun) in America, but it's not the fault of the companies abundant products-that's their job. It's due to the lazy people who over indulge while they sit on their couch and watch the fiftieth American Idol season every night and then wonder why they cant fit into their pants anymore. It's not your place to get mad at the bad companies that tempt you..it's your place to think for yourselves and do what you need to stay healthy.

So drink a Coke. Drink a diet Coke. Drink water. Take a walk. It doesnt matter what anyone else does-just do what you need to do for yourself to be healthy and happy. For me, that means having a Coke when im stressed and then going out with my man to burn it off (he's a health nut). :)

What about you?

This is your brain on Coca-Cola. Any questions?

I enjoy my freedom to tell you that chemicals are not food and that you are less of a natural creature for choosing to imbibe them. Tough luck. Deal with it.

Fruits are sugar enough for me, as they were for my ancestors. Yay me.

This is really interesting! I take bout 2 cans per day, the rest of the day it's water and some milk. I think everthing in moderation is ok, some people would have you think that lemonades and other non-carbonated drinks are better but they are full of sugar/preservative/chemicals too!

I think drinking soda is fine if you dilute it with pure water or teas. I like soda so much I even have a blog devoted to it.

The cans of diet pepsi all have a metallic taste and are very distasteful. Seems that the taste is Aluminum and I plan to dispose of them (3 cases). I will no longer purchase a pepsi product unless someone can give me a reasonable explanation.

this is sooooo cool and yes you totally can taste it ! it is so weird its like you go and taste the sweet taste of regular and then u taste the dietand whapang!its like the sweetness is like all gone! well finally some people understand!

If I should accidently drink coke or any soda sweetened with so called high fructose corn syrup, it is instant diarreha for me. It can last several hours. Sweetened with sucrose(you can get from Canada or Mexico) or Nutrisweet, no problem. HFCS is the scourage of mankind and likely the cause of many health problems from diabetes, obesity, and in my case horrible gastro problems. You can also buy sucrose sweetened Coke at Costco, but is 17 dollars per 24 bottles so is somewhat of a rip-off. God bless ethanol, perhaps HFCS will become so expensive that sucrose will be competitive and be used again in our softdrinks and pastries and other items. Another point of interest, fountain based diet coke(syrup) is sweetened with both Nutrisweet and Saccarhin(god awful tasting stuff). This is because shelf life of Nutrisweet is very short and Coke and other sodas in their fountain syrup use a "backup" of sacchrin, hence the awful taste. This stuff is really garbage and should be banned. Coke's theory is that canned coke turns over faster, so does not need backup sweetening agent. Don't believe it. Ask your local bar to show you a bottle of their syrup and read the ingredients and then compare to canned Coke. Yep, that's correct, the same sacchrin that has been linked for many years to cancer, but Coke never did have to do the warning label. Go Figure

I only drink diet soda once in a while.I like Diet Pepsi tha best.But I only drink it once in a while.If I'm eating popcorn I like to have a can of soda to go with it. And when I do drink it I make sure to sip my soda with a staw. I use to be a big soda junkie I use to drink about 5 cans a day.But no longer.Now I mustly drink water and tea.But once in a while I will have a drink of diet soda. Yeah they say its bad for you but man must of the foods we eat are bad for us.Man america lives on fast food restaurants.Look how busy Mcdonalds get at lunch time.

Greenpeace Mexico has published a list of commercial products that contain GM corn and it includes various commercial brands of tortillas, as well as snacks like Doritos and most brands of breakfast cereals. GM corn is also the basis for many industrial food products like corn syrup, fructose, and vegetable oils.

pulled directly from: http://www.coanews.org/article/2008/monsanto-meets-resistance-in-mexico

the entire fact that anyone could considering drinking soda on a regular basis should be of concern. most corn syrup made now in days is from GM (genetically modified) corn. which yes, Jan74, has been known to cause cancer as well a various other array of diseases. watch "The Future of Food" -Deborah Koons Garcia – Director, Writer, Producer, if you'd like to find out more information.

First of all this is a funny thing, but I noticed everyone on this page calls the subject diet soda. I am a proud hillbilly and everybody in all of Eastern Ky. calls it Pop. lol. So, basically I sarted drinking diet pop 5 years ago and lost 20 pounds along with exercise and a good diet plan. I kept it off up till the last year and gained it all back and an extra 2 pounds. Now the diet pop isn't working anymore. I've read quite a few blogs about this and finding that it's not the aspartame, cause people are putting those sweeteners in their water and doing well with their diets. it's the diet pop that isn't working. which leads me to think it's the carbonation. in which regular pop also has of course. I think it may all be linked to the sodium in which is in both beverages. Sodium leads to water retention which makes you gain water weight. I really love my diet pop. and maybe I'm only making excuses for it. haha, but I will cut back on the diet pop and try more water and see how this goes.

I always wanted to know this answer but i too have made myself to enjoy the taste. sprite's my best

Diet sodas dont tast bad. Regular sodas taste HORRIBLE! If a diet soda had a billion calories i would still choose it over a "regular soda". They are just awful.

Diet Soda Suxs i can definatly taste the differences!!!