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| Figure 6 |
When I was growing up, my mom had something of a Diet Coke addiction. Actually, addiction is a huge understatement; if my mom could have had an IV drip of Diet Coke hooked up to her she would have been ecstatic. Sadly, a similar relationship recently existed between Dr Pepper and me. You would think that my mom would relate, but after eight years of rehab involving Weight Watchers and many, many tennis matches, she kicked the Diet Coke habit and can hardly stand to have soda in the house. (Sometimes when I come home from school my dad will sneak some Dr Peppers into the back of the fridge though…shhh.) So why did my mom drink Diet Coke in the first place? I would say it was because she was looking to drink a “healthier” option of Coke, but the two products hardly taste the same. Perhaps the only reason is Diet Coke is well, diet.
Like my mom, I have also tried removing soda (lifeblood) from my diet. My grand (what I thought was genius) scheme was to remove one harmful ingredient at a time. I’d heard horror stories of Dr Pepper drinkers like me going through actual withdrawals; without the constant flow of sugar and caffeine, they got shaky, sweaty, and experienced piercing headaches for at least a week. Not wanting that to happen to me, my soda-eradicating timeline was as follows:
Alex's Farewell to Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper --> Diet Coke --> Sprite --> Lemonade--> Water aka Freedom
As I’m drinking a glass of Diet Coke right now, I can tell you right now that this master plan didn’t work out.
What did stick was a switch from Dr Pepper to Diet Coke. I know that replacing sugar with aspertame isn’t the most ideal way to cut out sugar or my ties to a booming corporate business, but keeping up my addiction without the calories is enough for me. Maybe I’ll kick the habit after graduate school when caffeine won’t be an essential component of my diet. The point is, Diet Coke has given me and other Americans an opportunity to keep purchasing their product without affecting our waistlines. By labeling processed food with health claims, food distributors look to gain the business of the consumer who’s looking to lead a healthier lifestyle. As someone who has done their soda research, I know that labeling a can as a “diet drink” and adding chemical substitutes isn’t much better than the original product. I’m still drinking it though.
Figure 6 is a direct copy from the Coca-Cola website of one 16 oz bottle of Diet Coke.
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