Diet Coke has been a favorite for decades, in spite of those who say it's not nearly
as healthy as the term "diet" suggests. That raises the question: how much do those who
drink it really know about this diet soda? Here's the scoop on Diet Coke's history and popularity.
Coca-Cola took its sweet time entering the diet soda market, with a company history of the product
revealing the idea for a sugar-free version of Coke had been in the works for two decades.
During the 1970s, health-conscious consumers began turning away from sugar.
While this hurt sales of traditional soda, it was simultaneously creating a whole new market
for sodas that could offer all the flavor and none of the sugar. Coca-Cola planning manager
Jack Carew, who was tapped to develop a sugar-free version of Coke, explained:
"We needed a big idea to come out of one of the toughest decades we'd ever seen."
While the development of Diet Coke was a key priority for Coca-Cola, very few people within
the company actually knew about the top-secret endeavor. Carew's colleague Jerry Bell added,
"It was an entrepreneurial cloak-and-dagger operation in the purest sense."
Market forces drove the development of Diet Coke as the company attempted to
reach a "core demographic" identified as baby boomers who, as they became older and heavier,
were ready to try a Coke alternative that wouldn't contribute as much to their expanding waistlines.
Diet Coke had been a fixture in the marketplace for more than 20 years when,
in 2005, Coca-Cola launched a new — and very similar — product: Coke Zero,
which would go on to co-exist with Diet Coke until it was ultimately rebranded as Coke Zero Sugar in
2016. While the two products are similar, anyone who's ever done a taste test of the
two can attest that Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar do exhibit markedly different tastes.
Anyone who's ever had a Diet Coke knows that this version has its own distinctive flavor
that is quite different from regular Coca-Cola. Coke Zero Sugar, on the other hand,
is meant to mimic the taste of the original Coca-Cola, just without all that pesky sugar.
Yet when it comes to the actual ingredients,
what goes into making the two sodas is pretty much identical, save for one key difference:
Coke Zero Sugar contains a chemical called sodium citrate, while Diet Coke contains citric acid.
Anyone who's ever stashed cans of Coke and Diet Coke in a cooler full of ice may have
noticed an interesting phenomenon as the ice melts: a can of Diet Coke will float
up to the surface of the water, while regular Coke will sink to the bottom.
As it turns out, there's a very simple scientific explanation for this:
a can of Diet Coke weighs less than a can of Coke.
But given that each can contains the same volume of liquid, 12 fluid ounces, what gives?
The difference is in the density of the liquid.
A 12-ounce can of regular Coke contains 39 grams of sugar,
while the same-sized can of Diet Coke instead uses the artificial sweetener aspartame, which
is significantly sweeter than sugar and requires far less to achieve the same level of sweetness.
This affects the density of each soda; because so little aspartame is used to sweeten Diet Coke,
the resulting liquid is actually less dense than water,
allowing the can to float. The additional weight of the sugar in the standard version, however,
makes regular Coke denser than water, causing it to sink.
When changing market forces led Coca-Cola to update Diet Coke's packaging and launch some
new Diet Coke flavors, one thing that the company never placed under consideration
was adjusting the recipe or changing the flavor. As Business Insider pointed out,
even though Diet Coke had been losing market share, the product has remained
a favorite of its devoted customers. In 2017, CEO James Quincey told reporters:
"I don't think we're likely to change Diet Coke. It has a large following.
Diet Coke will be Diet Coke for a good while longer."
Fans of the soda, he insisted, should have no fear that the
formula and distinctive taste would be altered anytime soon.
While that following is indeed dedicated, it has also been shrinking.
According to another Business Insider report, the successful launch of Coke Zero Sugar appeared to
come at the expense of Diet Coke. During 2016, sales of Coke Zero increased by 3.5 percent,
while Diet Coke sales dropped by 1.9 percent during the same time frame.
Longtime aficionados of Diet Coke may recall that when the product first launched, it had
a different logo — and a slightly different name. That's because Diet Coke was originally diet Coke,
with a lowercase "d" — and there was actually an interesting legal justification behind that.
According to a behind-the-scenes history of Diet Coke on the Coca-Cola corporate website,
when the market plan was initially being developed there were words other than
"diet" under consideration, such as "sugar-free" and "light."
However, executives were wary of "sugar-free" as they feared it reflected poorly on sugar-laden
original Coke; meanwhile, "light" was already being used by a competitor and the company wanted
to avoid comparisons with other sugar-free sodas. The word "diet," however, seemed to be the most
fitting descriptive, but Coca-Cola's lawyers were insistent that the word remain lowercase.
The way the attorneys interpreted it, uppercase "Diet" was a noun,
which would have necessitated changing the trademark. Keeping "diet" lower-cased meant
it was being used as an adjective, and therefore kept the legalities of the trademark intact.
Since childhood, everyone has heard warnings from parents and dentists that sugar will rot teeth.
As Healthline explained, sugar does indeed encourage tooth decay — albeit indirectly,
by combining with certain bacteria in the mouth
to create an acid that eats away at tooth enamel and leads to cavities.
A sugar-free soda would seemingly be far less harmful to teeth,
but that has not turned out to be the case when it comes to Diet Coke. A 2015 research study
undertaken by the University of Melbourne's Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre
exposed human molars to 15 different beverages, including milk, sports drinks,
sugar-sweetened sodas, and three different sugar-free sodas. Surprisingly, the study
found that sugar-free soda and sugary soda were both equally bad for tooth enamel.
And while sugary soda and sugar-free soda both erode enamel, the way that happens is actually
different. When it comes to Diet Coke, the process happens because it contains certain
ingredients — particularly phosphoric acid — that combine with calcium to weaken tooth enamel.
As the study noted, "polyol-based sugar-free products" such as Diet Coke may decrease
the risk of cavities, although the phosphoric acid will actually cause more dental erosion.
By the mid-2010s, sales of Diet Coke were on a decidedly downward trajectory. By 2017, Beverage
Marketing reported sales of bottled water had, for the first time ever, surpassed soda to become
America's top beverage category. The growing popularity of bottled water was bad news for
Diet Coke and other sugar-free sodas, as it was cutting directly into the category's market share.
In response to Diet Coke's slumping sales, Coca-Cola made a big move.
According to a 2018 press release, the Diet Coke can underwent a redesign to arrive at a
slim new look. In addition, four new flavors were introduced targeting millennials, with original
Diet Coke joined by Twisted Mango, Ginger Lime, Zesty Blood Orange and Feisty Cherry varieties.
Rafael Acevedo, Coca-Cola North America's group
director for Diet Coke explained that the company's goal was to
"Be bold, think differently and be innovative."
"Almost everyone appreciates the best, and the bright tang of Coke
is always welcome after a busy day of shopping."
Given that the word "diet" is right there in the name of Diet Coke, it would be easy
to assume that drinking Diet Coke would be better for one's waistline than regular sugar-laden Coke.
Not only is that not the case, but a research study indicated that drinking
diet soda can actually lead to weight gain, not weight loss, in spite of popular opinion.
A 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
drew a direct link between diet sodas such as Diet Coke and obesity in people age 65 and older.
The study monitored 749 subjects and found that those who drank diet soda demonstrated an increase
in waist circumference that was nearly three times that of those who didn't drink diet soda.
University of Texas researcher Sharon Fowler, lead author of the study, determined that
"Increasing diet soda intake was associated with escalating
abdominal obesity, which may increase cardiometabolic risk in older adults."
Another study from the University of Sydney in Australia, followed on that earlier research to
determine why sugar-free soda was associated with weight gain and not weight loss. The study came to
an interesting conclusion: drinking Diet Coke and other types of artificially sweetened diet sodas
can lead the brain to crave more calories than it otherwise would.
According to a press release for the 2016 study, which was published in the Cell
Metabolism journal, researchers confirmed that diet soda actually makes those who drink it
feel hungrier. As a result, those who drink artificially sweetened soda such as Diet Coke
will ultimately eat more than they would if they were drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage.
The study found that the brain expects sweetness to be accompanied by calories.
When the brain's pleasure center experiences the sweet taste without the accompanying calories,
the brain then "recalibrates" and causes the brain to crave the calories it was expecting to receive,
which can ultimately lead to overeating.
"There's no waistline worry with Coke, you know.
Actually, this individual size bottle has no more calories than half a grapefruit!"
A 2018 study co-authored by Yale researcher Dr. Dana Small
dug deeper and came up with some even more surprising findings.
Not only can drinking Diet Coke and other diet sodas lead to craving more calories,
but that becomes considerably more pronounced when the soda is combined with carbohydrates.
According to the study, consuming carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners together will lead to
confusion in the brain, blunting its response in metabolizing what is perceived to be sugar
but actually isn't — what Small describes as a "circuit change" within the brain. If this effect
keeps happening on an ongoing basis, difficulties can arise when the brain and body attempt to
process the nutrients but aren't receiving accurate information. Small told Inverse:
"If you're going to have a diet drink, don't have it with French fries.
Have the diet drink by itself and if you're going to have a diet drink,
give an hour on either side and it should be fine, at least in small quantities."
In 2008, Diet Coke removed a controversial ingredient from the soda's formula:
sodium benzoate. The company's announcement came after the release of research concluding
the chemical could cause cell damage, resulting in changes to the DNA that were
linked to hyperactivity, Parkinson's disease, and cirrhosis of the liver.
The 2007 study from molecular biologist Dr. Peter Piper of the University of Sheffield,
reported The Telegraph, was not mentioned by Coca-Cola when the company confirmed it
would be removing sodium benzoate from Diet Coke.
According to a statement given to the Daily Mail, Coca-Cola was removing the ingredient as
a response to increasing consumer demand for more natural products. A Coca-Cola spokesperson said:
"We are continuously listening to our consumers' thoughts about ingredients. For a number of years,
we have been moving towards non-artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives where possible in our
drinks. We are looking to phase out the use of sodium benzoate where technically possible."
When having a mixed drink, there's a difference between mixing booze with regular Coke and Diet
Coke that goes far beyond the disparity in taste. A 2015 study on diet soda found some
surprising results, indicating that drinks mixed with artificially sweetened soda
led to a higher concentration of alcohol as measured in the breath.
Researcher Dennis Thombs was working on a similar study, and told NPR why this was. As he explained,
"It is not that diet soda accelerates intoxication.
Rather, the sugar in regular soda slows down the rate of alcohol absorption."
However, the study determined that the subjects didn't notice a difference in their own levels
of intoxication based on whether they were drinking diet soda or regular soda,
which could place them at higher risk of drinking and driving. And that is an
important piece of information to keep in mind for everyone's safety.
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