I've never been a "diet soda" drinker until a year ago. After a stint as a vegetarian, I decided to go the other way and participate in a "carb diet." What this meant was my dietary needs went from "Brontosaurus" to "Tyrannosaurus Rex." Anyway, as part of this diet, I quit consuming sugar. Sure enough, I became a diet soda drinker.
I'm not gonna lie to you, it doesn't taste the same. But now that I've acclimated my taste buds to it, I prefer diet to regular soda (which is now insanely sweet-tasting to me). That said I don't care for Diet Pepsi and I loath Diet Coke.
No friends, you want a delicious soft drink (and still fit into last year's swimsuit)? I recommend COKE ZERO. Coke Zero is amazing. What amazes me about is that, while both Diet Coke and Coke Zero are made by the same company (Coca-Cola) they're completely different products.
How can I explain this to a non-diet soda drinker?
Diet Coke tastes like a regular Coke mixed with a cup of water and left out in the sun all day (where it bakes). Coke Zero is like a more nimble, sexier version of Coke--the version that can do the spilts (and wears cut-off shorts).
Anyway, most "diet" sodas have no: sugar, carbs, or calories. What they DO have is a shit-load of sodium. That's why it's bad for you (still). However my wife recently found what I consider to be the "unicorn" of diet sodas--she found a Diet Ginger Ale.
Can you believe they make a Diet Ginger Ale? Me neither. I've been happily swilling it for two days now. Last night I watched the complete first season of AFRO SAMURAI (with Sam Jackson) and drank about three of those things. I was on my final soda of the night when I was looking at the can.
I was looking at the can because this is a crappy-store brand soda. What's the worst part about a store-brand soda? The can. The can always looks incredibly bad, like Pepsi and Coke paid the stores to use crappy can art to shame people into drinking the national brand.
Of course stupid rip-off names like "Mountain Lightning" and "Doctor Thunder" don't help either.
Anyway, this particular store-brand has a pretty cool can design...kinda abstract with a nice pretty green color to it. So instead of watching anime, I was studying my soda can.
As I was doing so, this caught my eye:
I did a double-take, that says "Low calorie" not "No Calorie."
I freaked out (for no particular reason) and spun the can around to check out the nutritional facts. Turns out one can of this "diet" soda has 5 measly calories.
WHAT THE HELL? Why couldn't they obliterate those last five calories? This soda is pretty good, but it's not better than any of the zero calorie sodas I've tasted. It seems like something with 5 calories should taste a little better than something with none, right?
I realize that I'm over-thinking all of this, but it's been bugging me all day. So I ask you "Super Chill Soda": Why does your Diet Ginger Ale have 5 calories?
I'm not sure if this is related, but I did notice that the amount of sodium is 0% (meaning there is no sodium). So perhaps that's the trade-off--instead of extreme levels of salt there's 5 calories.
Hmmm...
I guess I can live with that.
I did a double-take, that says "Low calorie" not "No Calorie."
I freaked out (for no particular reason) and spun the can around to check out the nutritional facts. Turns out one can of this "diet" soda has 5 measly calories.
WHAT THE HELL? Why couldn't they obliterate those last five calories? This soda is pretty good, but it's not better than any of the zero calorie sodas I've tasted. It seems like something with 5 calories should taste a little better than something with none, right?
I realize that I'm over-thinking all of this, but it's been bugging me all day. So I ask you "Super Chill Soda": Why does your Diet Ginger Ale have 5 calories?
I'm not sure if this is related, but I did notice that the amount of sodium is 0% (meaning there is no sodium). So perhaps that's the trade-off--instead of extreme levels of salt there's 5 calories.
Hmmm...
I guess I can live with that.
4 comments:
Interesting post. I tried the whole "diet soda" thing for a while, but ultimately I gave up. Now, instead of drinking horrible-tasting Cokes and Pepsis, I just drink regular clear sodas. They're loaded with sugar, but I can live with it.
And it's true that those knockoff brand sodas like Sierra Breeze or Mr. Pubb sometimes actually are better than their brand name counterparts!
Diet sodas? What are you talking about string-bean...you don't need that.
I can dig the clear soda thing...I was prepping for a job interview the other day and I was like "Jesus my teeth are yellow."
Seriously. It's fucking disgusting. I think the brown sodas and coffee need to go.
I like the detailed study of something as simple as diet soda. Very amusing and interesting read.
There are a couple of typos: ...they're completely different products (instead of they); Why does your Diet Ginger..(instead of you).
An English correction: ..drank about three of those things..(instead of these because it's past tense).
Thanks for reading Shelly! As for the typos--I didn't edit this week's post as well as I should (also I should have been drinking Diet Ginger Ale instead of Bourbon as I wrote the blog).
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