Why Are People OBSESSED with Diet Coke?
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- Опубліковано 21 лют 2023
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One of the great mysteries of life is how the Diet Coke Person became a cultural fact. In the last few decades, the drink has gone so far beyond just a means of cutting back on sugar: it’s become its own way of life. And the reason why is honestly a little disturbing.
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For further reading, check out the sources for this video here:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/...
Script: Holly Maley
Editor: Ben Winnington + Kirsten Stanley
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand
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I feel so fortunate to have been raised in a house where we just didn't get soda.
I definitely drank it, and liked it. But because it wasn't conveninently available at all times at home, that probably played a huge part in me just not really developing into a soda person.
I never liked it. I always just thought it tasted like burning. Now that I’m older and learning about how terrible excess sugar is for you, I’m glad I never developed the taste for it
I didn't like the soda. Just the flavors.
I love it, but I have a HARD limit of one can a day. Its fine in moderation and provides the sugar I need every day
It tastes good, but relative to how unhealthy it is the taste is just absolutely not worth it. Like at that point just eat ice cream or something, it tastes way better and has a comparable density of calories.
@@ThePenguin134 lol no, not all sugars are the same. You require naturally occurring sugars from fruits etc. 1 soda a day is a surefire way to have health problems later in life if not earlier
I was addicted to 7up back in my college days. After i got back home from college, i made a conscious decision to stop all fizzy, sugary drinks. It was hard at first tbh, but it was well worth it. I haven't touched a fizzy, sugary soft beverage in 6 years now. Water is the best way to stay hydrated. If you get bored with water, infuse it with fresh fruits
And If you are a person who does like fizzy seltzer are great options. I have a friend who uses a sods stream to fizzy her lemon water
We're definitely not the biggest fan soft drinks (not a surprise), so it's good to hear these stories of people trying to stay away from them as well! Thank you for sharing 🤙
Fr...water >>>
Honestly once you stop drinking fizzy drinks, after a period of time you don't even really want them anymore.
Great idea with fresh fruit. I like to cold brew tea as well.
My husband was addicted to coke when I first met him. He got sick with something and stopped drinking it for a week due to the illness. He used that as a jumping off point to kick his addiction. he thought, if I can make it one week, maybe I can make it two. Etc. And those weeks turned into years. Now he craves water and often exclaims how delicious it is. He can also drink a coke for a special occasion if he wants and not crave any more. I'm proud of him.
That's just a theory. A FOOD THEORY! Wait, wrong channel...
Hahahahahaha a crossover episode 👀👀👀
MatPat has talked about his love for Diet Coke manymany times so he wouldn't speak ill of it ☠️
and matpat is addicted to diet coke
@@FutureProofTV mat pat would fight you for this one :p
I think matpat would 1v1 you
MatPat silently sitting in the corner with his diet coke:
The thing that blows my mind is that none of these soda companies made a less sweet option. Like maybe I would have a soda every now and again if the two options weren't literal sugar syrup or licking the inside of a test tube. Maybe in their minds it would be admitting they are the problem if they make a soda that is only 10g of sugar per serving, but I will probably never know🤷♂️
A less sugary option would be great
I've got into Bubly. I like that it doesn't have sodium or sugar. It was weird at first to have flavour without sugar and salt but I enjoy one a day as my keto treat.
I tried to make one with seltzer and coke syrup. It wasn’t good.
that's why Mexican coke has a different taste (and is better imo)...it's made with just regular sugar instead of syrups and shit (because of strict health and food laws there). I'm not a soda drinker, they've always been too sweet for me....but coke in Mexico is just better...not so insanely sweet
@@lolaloliepop this has not been true for a while
It's so easy to get addicted to sugary drinks but it is also very true that if you refrain for a little bit, your cravings for them will stop
It takes too long for the craving to go away for me. I last about a week
How come only fat people drink diet coke? (except in the ads)
@@MilwaukeeWoman I don't understand why people get addicted to substances. I never had a problem with sugar, caffeine or artificial sweeteners. Especially artificial sweeteners. If anything sweeteners are repulsive. It's not easy to override the brain's natural block of yucky stuff.
@@ItsMeBarnaby you must be super healthy then, having normal body fat despite your choice to drink something that causes weight gain. I'm sure your insulin and glucagon levels/homeostasis is really, super stable and healthy too.
@@dalelane1948 I think its varies, for me at least, like maybe 7 years ago, I was addicted to normal Coke and i was decently over weight, not like obsencly, and without changing much of my lifestyle, I started drinking Diet Coke/Coke Zero and I was able to actually lose around 15 pounds over about a year and I've reached a stable weight thats been more or less the same for the past about 4 or 5 years. Now I still drink Coke Zero nearly everyday and I know its a problem but its honestly really hard to stop, but hey, at least my weight hasnt vastly increased 💀 Given at this point I workout enough to keep it steady
If you're reading this, no one yet has finished the video
😅😅 the amount of comments we get when the video's been up for like 10 seconds
Not if you watch on two times speed
It’s about drive it’s about power
Reading this 21 min after the 13 min video was posted.
You are incorrect sir.
@@FutureProofTV it’s like when people used to comment first, assuming they don’t anymore
To be fair to the company, the Coke Zero/Diet Coke product helps diabetics and dialysis patients alleviate the mental stress of not being able to have sweets and feel full. When you reach a point that you have to be on a very controlled diet to not die, sodas are some of the only remaining options that satiates the cravings of sweets and feeling that your gut is full, without spiking insulin. I suppose the tragedy is the deeper into the cycle goes, the more the patients crave it. (missing you Dad)
But with all things, moderation is key. You are correct that the mindset that regular people think Diet Coke is a penalty-free way to enjoy soda is just wrong. At the end of the day, it's still a synthesized, acidic, and carbonated liquid being ingested. You can't justify is as a regular or primary means of hydration just because it's zero calorie. LOL
Colas are still a no-go for kidney patients due to the phosphoric acid that’s in it. They’re actually one of the worst drinks to have. 😕
@@fiatlux8828 They are. And if the patient was anything like my dad that has a strict daily fluid limit (he shouldn't have more than a liter of fluid - food included) he seeks carbonated beverages because the gas makes him feel full and burpy.
It's a slippery slope once you breach the health of your kidneys, livers, or pancreas. :(
problem is, sweeteners are being researched as a possible cause for diabetes...
But it’s aspartame
@@idraote Are they? Or is it more likely that the kind of person regularly consuming artifical sweeteners is also already living a lifestyle that makes them more likely to have diabetes?
Life is too short to worry about artificial sweeteners.
I'm surprised the caffeine content is not mentioned here. It is clearly one of the biggest factors in people getting addicted to diet coke and having withdrawals after trying to quit.
It's literally mentioned at 8:18
Caffeine is great. Coke doesn't contain a lot of caffeine though. There's way more caffeine in a cup of coffee.
@@shanmangoyeah, but it's mentioned as a side note... He mostly talks about the artificial sweeteners as the addictive factor.
I don't believe that is the case, there's no link to withdraw symptoms from artificial sweeteners, but there is for caffeine.
@@zaidabraham7310enough to get you hooked. Not to mention that many people drink these more than once a day.
And if cocaine was made legal again, they would be the first to put it back into their sodas
My taste buds must be radically different from those of diet beverage drinkers.
Hard agree 💯
I always found diet drinks tasted worse to me than the "all natural" ones with their healthy doses of high fructose corn syrup. Something about diet coke tastes diluted and airy to me- almost like drinking the foam of regular coke and not the liquid itself. To this day I don't understand the fanaticism around diet sodas.
Same here. I can’t stand diet soda. I prefer juice over soda anyway. But I’ll have a high fructose corn syrup infused fruit flavored soda like orange or grape. Never diet. I’ll choose water over that and I don’t like drinking water.
same. the artificial sweetener versions always taste awful, it's like cough medicine
@@SamercamYT replaced with aspartame 😊
I was never a big soda drinker but back in my late teens Tab was my go to soda; then it became hard to find so I switched to Diet Coke because I preferred the flavor over regular soda. Still not a problem, didn't drink that many.
But then came...Diet Coke with Lime & OMG, I was hooked! I would CRAVE it, sometimes even while I was drinking it, making me crack open another one immediately. Unfortunately I also get migraines so when someone suggested I try dropping artificial sweeteners it sounded like a good idea but getting off that Coke product was nearly impossible. Three times I quit & three times I went back to it before finally giving it up for good. I've learned I can occasionally have any kind of soda & not relapse EXCEPT for diet, & even now, years after quitting, I will still get a craving for Diet Coke with Lime. Most addictive product I've ever used & I'm a smoker, lol.
And yes, my migraines eased up afterward even if they didn't go away completely.
That's so interesting to hear first hand just how addictive these products can actually be, especially for those who already have an addictive personality. They really hook you in with the idea of no sugar added, hey? Glad you're off the stuff and feeling better, thank you for sharing with us here!!
You know…. Most of the time I’ve never heard of the brands Levi talks about, and have, I am very much a non-participant in the cult following of the brands. But Levi’s charisma and storytelling draws me in to learn about all the crazy crazes of the world.
Hey, that's great to hear! As long as people are still finding value and learning something from these videos we're stoked 😁 Thanks for being a part of the team, Benjamin
You've never heard of coke?
@@Alex-yq4cp I thought about making a joke about not hearing about Coke…. But then I remembered I’m from Texas, and that’s all we call any beverage that comes out of a coke fountain.
maybe it's called 'Coca Cola' where you live.
Lmao
one of my first roommates during Uni had a Diet Coke habit like you wouldn't believe. She literally was never without an enormous glass of it in her hand or at her elbow unless she was asleep. (She bought it in bottles not the cans for economic reasons.) She knew it was bad for her, at least she knew that the way she behaved with it was an unhealthy pattern, but she just couldn't stop, and really she didn't want to. It was one of the few reliable comforts in her life. (Which, to be fair, was pretty shitty for a whole host of reasons that weren't about the Diet Coke, but I am pretty damn sure the compulsive Diet Coke thing wasn't doing her any favours.) I strongly believed that it was a full blown addiction, at least in her case. This is the early 90s I'm talking about. At the time it was still commonly held that diet drinks were a 'healthy alternative', but having seen my friend I never swallowed that.
i was similar to your friend. after a breakup from a 6 year relationship, i drank 2L of diet coke a day. I was known for it. i was studying masters at the time and my classmates would tell me how unhealthy it is. on christmas,my professor gave me an apple and said it’s better than diet coke. i was sad and couldnt care less about my health. it was like alcohol except i didnt get fat. i also got drunk every week. mind you, before the breakup, i was a health freak and would rarely consume any form of sugar. im fine now though. im happy and dont need to rely on diet coke
My ex-husband was addicted to Diet Coke the same way. He never would admit it wasn't healthy, and he never quit. He died at 60, bless his heart.
@@rangerannie563660???? oh bless your family ❤❤
I was a serious Diet Coke Head in the late 80s - mid 90s. 12+ cans a day. I even had a mini fridge next to my bed just for the little demons. That came to a halt in 1997 when, thanks to AOL, I read it was reportedly linked* to Gulf War Syndrome, the name given to a variety of psychological and physical symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Aspartame poisoning was at the top of the suspect list. Large quantities of aspartame-sweetened diet soft drinks, primarily Diet Coke, were provided to Gulf War troops. Pallets of the soda would sit on tarmacs exposed to extreme heat in Kuwait during Desert Storm. Aspartame breaks down at roughly 85°F (29.5°C) into, among other things, methanol, formaldehyde, diketopiperazine, and formic acid. That was all I needed to read and I quit cold turkey. It was not a pretty sight, my friends told me I was having the same withdrawal symptoms as a junkie. I even started drinking heavily to numb my senses. It was awful. *While it has since been shown that sarin was more likely the main culprit, the toxic cocktail of overheated Diet Coke is still considered a contributing factor.
Bonus facts: Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg would go through 12 cans a day and considered it essential to his concentration and creativity.
Last year in honor of its 40th anniversary, Diet Coke tapped Kate Moss as creative director of the brand, and Moss has drawn inspiration from her own fashion archives to design a line of limited-edition cans. Full circle
How do you think that opiate withdrawal and stopping aspartame cause the same symptoms in humans? How did you even come up with that?
@@briano7986 I lived in New York City's Alphabet City and worked in the East Village as did my friends who were well acquainted with heroin use, some of them being former junkies. They were the ones who said I was acting like a junkie, not me.
My withdrawal symptoms, included; migraines, tension, major irritability, tremors, sweating, nausea, vomiting, severe depression, and insomnia. What's that sound like to you?
That was probably from the caffeine withdrawals as you were drinking high doses of caffeine if you would have replaced the soda with tea you wouldn’t have gone through all that
@@jimbowlan5804 Trust me, I increased my coffee and tea consumption to the mg of caffeine (OCD comes in handy), which didn't help my insomnia any, so I turned to booze which, thanks (no thanks) to working in bars and nightclubs, flowed freely. Fortunately, I stopped the hard alcohol and switched to beer and wine only with a meal, and reduced my caffeine to human levels (2 cups of coffee or tea in the morning and iced coffee, tea, or mate in the afternoons. I still suffer from depression and short-term memory issues
There is no way that aspartame breaks down at 85°F. Aspartame is just a methylated peptide (protein). If aspartame breaks down at 85°F, so would you. Gulf War Syndrome was most likely caused by exposure to pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide, which was used as pre-treatment to nerve agents.
In Brazil, Coke Zero is the choice. You don't find Diet Coke in restaurants or bars, it's Coke or Coke Zero. And I dare to say Zero is even more popular than the sugary one. Since the video talks only about Diet Coke, I guess we are safe with Coke Zero here. 👀😜
I mean, they’re the same product. Just marketed differently.
Coke Zero also uses artificial sweetener, just a different one from Diet Coke
Same in Singapore, Coke Zero is said to be zero sugar and calories.
Coke Zero is also sold in the US, it tastes different than Diet Coke.
@@ImTHECarlos98 not the same product really. it's a different Coke. I see all three on the supermarket. Zero uses a different sweetener that's closer to sugar. Diet Coke still has that artificial aspartame flavor.
im suprised this isnt a food theroy episode. matpat has been talking about his love for the drink for years. my preferred diet coke is the ones at mcdonalds. lately though ive been getting the strawberry cream diet dr pepper
I (somehow) was born with an extreme sensitivity to carbonation and can actually taste the carbon in the drink, which renders them just inconsumable. No matter what flavor a drink might have, the only thing I can taste is metal, basically. I can't even taste the sugar. However, this has given me complete immunity to soda drinks, since if it's carbonated, I just can't have it!
I don't know whether to envy you or being happy to not being you...
@@ralyman2 she can taste the kids from the balls
I occasionally get a carbonated burn in my nose & sinuses from a single drink. All the way to the tip of my nose or seems like it. Feels bubbly & like getting water in your sinuses when underwater like swimming.
This has the unfortunate side effect of also ruining carbonated water. I give this a 2/10.
i call bullshit. that's akin to saying you can taste the chlorine in table salt. carbonation is water that contains dissolved CO, which is a gas (colorless, odorless, tasteless).
I used to work at a poorly-managed movie theater. Once, we ran out of diet sweetener for about two weeks. The outrage of diet soda fans was insane - they really are addicted :(
I got SUPER into Diet Coke with Lime back in my early 20s. At my worst, I was going through a 12 pack a day. I stopped after I realized that I was getting withdrawal headaches from not having my normal dose of Diet Coke.
Now I rarely drink soda and typically steer clear of diet drinks all together. That being said, the footage in this video really made me crave a Diet Coke. 😬
This isn't the first comment we've seen specifically mentioning the addictive qualities of Diet Coke + Lime..... sorry about the triggering B-roll!! Honestly didn't even consider that 😅
A diet coke lime has 46mg of caffeine in it. 46×12=552mg of caffeine. The FDA considers only 400mg of caffeine a day safe for a healthy adult. So it sounds like you were consuming more caffeine than is considered safe. Caffeine withdrawal can cause headaches. So it's no wonder you were having headaches. A similar pattern with coffee would do the same thing.
Have a Diet Coke can tattooed on me in memorial for my absolutely addicted mom. It’s a little silly thing I got to remember her by.
Aspartame is one of the most studied substances on Earth.
Having an allergy to all artificial sugars actually restricts me and some family from so many foods. Even all chewing gum which has replaced sugar with artificial. I can only chew bubblegum because fake sugar does not make bubbles like real sugar can. But for all things “diet” I just can’t have. it’s fun having an allergic reaction when the McDonald employee decided I needed diet instead of normal. Just because I say I want a coke (and I don’t mention allergies) it doesn’t mean you get to decide if I “need” diet instead
They provably just grabbed the wrong cup, they all look the same. When we go out as a family we have Dr Pepper, coke, Diet Coke and sweet tea, they never give everyone the correct drink, they look too similar
@@tinkthestrange sweet tea looks different
Sometimes I think that people have replaced my diet coke/diet dr pepper with the regular stuff. It’s probably not very common, but it worries me because I don’t need a ton of sugary calories.
It's funny... when i was younger i absolutely HATED the taste of artificial sweeteners and stayed away from it at all costs and really only drank water and seltzer. But then something happened to me in my mid 20's after losing a lot of weight and getting into fitness where I decided to try diet coke and coke zero and absolutely fell in love and now its my favorite drink after water, especially since sugar is not really in my diet to begin with so I treat it like an occasional treat.
I was also wondering what you think about fitness influencers and professional dieticians pushing zero calorie sodas which surprised me that a good amount of them have no real issue with them.
If you cared about your body, you wouldn’t drink that crap.
@@williamwilson6499 i swear
the benefits for weightloss & fitness far outway any shit this video talks about
makes you wonder if some random guy on the internet is credible in contrast to experts from Stanford and other university professionals who state that diet or sweeteners aren't the worst thing for you, but actually help with weight loss and reduce blood pressure. I guess most will choose to believe a random guy on UA-cam who makes a video based on studies that aren't on humans. (FYI, the doses they use on these studies over long periods are nothing in contrast to how much aspartame is in diet or zero sugar drinks.) so to be fair, the studies on animals so far have been an exaggeration.
There are human trials that diet or zero-sugar soda drinks actually help with weight loss and reduction of blood pressure, these studies are on humans, so hey, I guess it is up to you to believe some random guy on the internet or publishers of animal studies on diet sodas, even though these publishers themselves aren't aware of the sciences and measurements of the studies (aren't experts.)
@@isaiahdanz3308 this channel quite commonly makes mistakes and other braindead things that are too long to name
Please talk about Coke Zero next. I cannot get over all these "healthier Cokes" and I just need someone to infodump on me about them.
And talk about coke life! Like the green can, probably some greenwashing attempt under there somewhere.
Why do you feel you need an infodump? Just enjoy the drinks.
Its been said a million times, but moderation is key. all soft drinks are bad for your health but, in moderation they can still be enjoyed. we don't keep sugar drinks (tea, soft drinks, juices) in the house EVER. However my family allows ourself any drink of choice on the day we decide to go eat out. Establishing "treats" in your life like this very important and i think its better than stopping all together (at least for me) Treating these things as delicacies and rarities teaches so much! Especially when raising children in this sugar filled world!
Now what means moderation, when the whole product is designed to be addictive from the start. For most people, moderation isn t an option.
Why are there no sources in the description? Lazy
Great video! I'd be a little more dubious about the negative health effects of diet sodas -- especially in regards to the metabolic aspect. Also, you have to take animal studies with a HUGE grain of salt. I recommend checking out Dr. Mike Israetel's video on this!
When I was a toddler my mom put sprite in my water bottle and I choked on it, now I’m afraid to drink any soft drink 😂😂
Thank your mother! Honestly she may have saved ur life
Ewww
the way i got a coke ad right before the video…
If only they knew what we were saying about them 😅
I never expected that I would be addicted to videos about everyday products.
Yet, here I am.
PS:
I don't have a problem, I can stop whenever I want.
But I don't want to.
I can't drink diet sodas because the few times I've tried (years apart, and different brands) it always tasted nasty to me. And the one time I tried a "zero" variant at a friend's house thinking it would go better because it's supposed to taste like the original, it gave me diarrhea.
I'm fine with artificial sweeteners in lots of things, but something about fake-sugar soda specifically disagrees with me. So I go with either the regular sugary version, or something that isn't soda. Usually water or juice.
Yup
Those symptoms... Make a lot of sense. I went through them for a few years with diet and "zero" pops because I can't have a lot of sugar. I would go through serious cravings and got headaches if I didn't have a Mountain Dew Zero/Diet at some point. I thought it was just a caffeine thing but coffee didn't quite hit my cravings. I drank so much freaking pop and eventually stopped because after having like 5 in a row, I felt sick and because it got expensive. I haven't had any pop for months now. The first few weeks were rough but now I hate the idea of having any more. I just stick to coffee and even then, I'm light on the creamer (like 1tbps max or a small amount of milk, no added sugar ever). Even then, I only have it a few times a week, I don't drink coffee daily and I limit myself to 2 cups a day at most.
Lesson learned. Start licking random things until you discover something you can convert into a billion-dollar industry.
I will just say, while I was on my weight loss kick, and lost 80 pounds. Diet Drinks like Diet Coke, or Coca-Zero, Zevia, etc were a massive tool that helped me keep at it.
It allowed me to enjoy sodas and flavored drinks, without increasing my calorie intake. It worked for me.
As far as "your brain not getting satisfaction" that could well be true, but if you are drinking these for a specific purpose, you have more control over that.
Awesome love the content!
Thanks for joining us here!
This is a weird American thing no doubt... In the UK 'Coke Zero' massively outsells 'Diet Coke' and it tastes better.
Pretty much the same product unfortunately, with different branding and a taste that resembles traditional coke more 🤷♂ So interesting that their products have different impacts depending on where they're sold!
@@FutureProofTV I believe originally Coke Zero and Pepsi Max were introduced as a way of marketing diet drinks to men and the difference between the products was just half a calory.
Obsiouly 'diet' is too feminine... However 'ZERO' and 'MAX' - far more manly! In lots of Europe its called Coke Lite instead of diet
These days though (at least in the UK) Coke Zero is quite different tasting to Diet. Like you said, similar to regular Coke - but with that slightly synthetic aftertaste.
I was a hard core Diet Coke drinker up until COVID. COVID killed my sense of taste for sweet and the addiction was broken over night.
Diet Coke being a "fashion accessory" reminds me of Fiji Water having a sort of similar effect.
My mother was an avid tea drinker in her 30's and 40's. She was also a fairly heavy smoker. Sometime in her 40's, she got hooked on diet sodas. Sadly, in her 70's she developed dementia. In her last few months, she lost all mobility. She was forced to quit smoking, and for a week or two, she did keep trying to get out of bed and go outside, we assume to smoke, even though she never mentioned it. after a week or so, nicotine became a non-issue. However, until she lost the ability to communicate entirely, she would yell and scream about getting her diet drinks. She accused other people of stealing them, and demanded them night and day. Aside from a few bits of food and sipping on things like ensure or occasionally OJ, it's all she wanted. The stuff is pure poison, and watching my mom go through that, I am glad I never got hooked on any sort of soda, diet or not, and will not let my own family get into such an unhealthy addiction.
Videos like this just make me even more glad I can't handle fizzy drinks! Also, imagine the cost of that much soda; even if it's cheap it'll add up fast.
Just drink water..use water bottle
It's not cheap any more
not addicted to diet coke but i am addicted to sparkling water ngl. i go through a box of lacroix or bubbly in a week, sometimes five days. i think it’s the fizziness of the drink that tricks my brain into thinking i’m drinking soda when i’m not lol. but you’re totally right about not craving soda the longer you go without them. i havent had one in years and i have no desire to drink one, even if it’s right in front of me.
i made the decision to step away from sugar a couple of years ago and replaced it with stevia in my coffee, tea, oatmeal and baked goods. i didnt know there were so many negative impacts surrounding it.
So glad you mentioned the way the strength of artificial sweeteners affects taste! Since I stopped drinking soda regularly a few years ago, other sweet things have tasted way sweeter! I still have a soda occasionally, but every time I do, I kinda just think "I'm good for a while." They're SO sweet when you're not used to them.
What's Coke Zero then? thought that was the diet version of coke
They're both a sugar free version of coke. *In my opinion* , coke zero tastes a lot more like regular coke than diet coke does, but diet coke tastes better than both lol. Edits bc i can't fricken spell lol.
I came in here on my high horse because I drink the caffeine-free Diet Coke uhhhh I feel pretty silly now.
🤷♂ All about learning more about our daily habits and less about judgement! But also yeah you should feel silly 😂
This is one of the most important videos for me as a 2 liter a day diet coke drinker. I really appreciate what was said here ❤
Back when I was a Boy Scout one of our scout leaders was this old guy with a huge belly, and on one camping trip me and my buddy got picked to go in his car. When he opened the door for us a bunch of Diet Coke cans poured out onto the parking lot, when we looked inside we realized that there were cans everywhere, it was like a sea of Diet Coke.
I’ve been a diet coke addict since college, started drinking it in high school. Idk that any Diet Coke drinker over the age of, say, 20 believes it’s “healthy”; far too many people like to randomly tell us “that’s not good for you.” It’s always unsolicited and often frustrating in how patronizing and self-righteous they act. In my experience, these are also people who drink wine, craft beer, fine liquors, coffee and energy drinks (w/ artificial sweeteners), and/or smoke all the freakin’ time, waaaay more than I ever have or could...
I often respond jokingly with something like “Hi pot, I’m kettle. Nice to meet ya!” Sometimes that’s enough to reinforce the boundary and I don’t have to be more overt in explaining why their behavior is inappropriate or remind them of their glass houses…. Like the science about most those vices being harmful is significantly more robust than potential issues with Diet Coke. Since this kind of BS isn’t uncommon, it’s made me wonder, beyond the hypocritical projection, why do so many people have such an attitude towards Diet Coke but not those other substances I listed? Might it have something to do with gender and/or class??🤔🤔
Yeah really. I like coke zero. Yeah sure I could drink water, and I usually do, but sometimes I just want to live a little. Also have yet to experience the side effect of sweetener making one binge eat.
Great video! I used to drink at least six cans a day. It took over a year to get over the cravings. The addiction is real!
Thanks for sharing and joining us here! Glad you got over the cravings, it's a tough one to beat!
I try to limit myself to 2 diet sodas a day.
Throw in coffee & tea.
Also now there are flavored powders with caffeine, you can mix in water.
4:02 the lord-ship soda world one-two punch was just excellent lmao
And as of right now my weekend treats consists of 2x1.5l of sugary soda and 2x500ml of some sort of sorbet... I feel fine!
Thanks for giving me more of a reason to avoid diet and sugar-free sodas, as if I didn't already.
Yeah....no. I was around when Diet Coke first came out. Before that, there wasn't much option for a #T1D kid like me. It was Tab or Diet Pepsi, both sweetened with saccharine, which had an unpleasant aftertaste. Instead, Diet Coke had the new aspartame, which did not have the unpleasant aftertaste, nor did it skyrocket my blood sugars like sugar did. I still prefer Diet Coke to this day -sugared sodas taste syrupy, and I'm allergic to Splenda. AND I don't have the problems with aspartame increasing my desire for more calories, nor do I know anyone who does. But then, nutrition and healthy diet is a complex combination that should never be over simplified by claiming only one aspect of it is the entire reason a person (or group of people) is overweight. Bad move, Future Proof.
I fear FutureProof did not really read all those studies they are claiming to have read. It would be nice if they had listed the studies somewhere.
Their idea that their coffee pads video being watched millions of times gives it any scientific ground makes me wonder if that video is also full of pseudoscience.
PS: What do you call a sugary soda addict? ....Obese?
This video is not balanced. The science on the health effects of artificial sweeteners is complex and has a lot of nuances. In the case of diet coke, I think the worst offender is citric and phosphoric acid (tooth, bone, heart problems). Additionally, the separation of psychological and physiological effects has to be addressed. Of course, the use of "less" bad soda is not the moral high road, but if we are too strict, perfection becomes the enemy of improvement.
I have only just found your channel. Great info and you are pleasant to watch as a host.
I'm one of those people who can detect the taste of artificial sweeteners and find them to be genuinely disgusting. So this was never going to be an issue for me. Having said that I think there are far more compelling reasons to stop drinking Coke than the shaky science cited in this video. A video on how Coca-Cola and Nestlé negatively impact the environment and the way the people who supply their raw ingredients are treated by these companies would be welcome.
I’m actually really curious: in Germany a brand called “air up” got extremely popular as they only use smell to get your brain to think you’re drinking something sweet (still totally overpriced), is that a thing in the Us too? I’d really like you guys opinion about that!
There’s been a couple gimmick products like that in the US, yeah. They’ve never really caught on lol
@@augustoof13 interesting, thanks!
Despite what augustoof said. That particular gimmick never happened here in the US. We’ve never had a “beverage” that was packaged as a smell to trick your brain into thinking it consumed a drink.
@@SoUnDMaN831 i thought i saw some on amazon. Like a weird shark tank product
There’s a soda that tastes like the essence of whatever fruit it is in the US…like the fruit took a sip of water and coughed in the drink, that’s how much flavor is in there lol. It smells fruity though. Maybe they we’re trying to do that lol. I can’t think of the name of the soda
Regular coke is my drug, but what regulates my consumption is that it's so damn inconsistent. The big bottles come with no gas or have less sugars and artificial sweeteners. I hate artificial sweeteners, especially Coke's, they taste terrible. So I don't actually drink that much, only when I go out I get small bottles which are most often fizzy and sugary. Mmmm
Man for a second I thought u were talking about cocaine lmaoo 🤣🤣 so see it could be worse🤷🏻♂️
I was hooked on energy drinks in early high school. Kid you not, 4, 5, sometimes 6 per day of the taller cans. NOT a good thing. I realized this was a problem and started cutting back more and more to where I was not drinking them anymore by senior year. If anything, curonah further fueled the desire to cut that stuff - everyday soda, frozen cans of concentrate, etc. - out. Today, I mostly drink water. Only once in a great while will I have a pop or even a mocha with no shots, as in less than once per month for any of it (although admittedly I was mildly hooked on lemonade last summer).
I'm actually curious now - what would coke taste like if all sugars/sweeteners would be taken out?
“Healthy” coke is simply a matter of context, which will vary from person to person.
For me, “healthy” coke is one of those 100 calorie cans of regular coke one every two weeks or so. Delicious, as Big Capitalist Daddy has instructed me to think of it as, and a treat.
I only miss regularly going to Canada to get the 100 calorie cans with real sugar 😭
Big Capitalst Daddy 😩
"Big capitalist daddy .. I don't want to know what that looks like to you
As a person who’s never had Diet Coke, this video definitely makes me want to try one now, just to see what the hype is all about 😅
It should be noted that Diet Coke addicts didn’t know what it tasted like either… until they tried it. _Then_ they became addicted.
I really like diet sodas (esp. the cola types, like diet coke and pepsi max), because they taste really nice and don't have sugar. However, the caffeine always makes me regret it the next day (headaches unless I get more).
That said, at home, a sodastream + some basic citrus (or ascorbic acid powder) + a bit of collagen powder + electrolyte powder makes for a perfectly cromulent soda replacement.
This is a really good video! I unfortunately know a lot of people with a diet coke addiction. I have always thought it tasted bad.
As others write in other comments, this thing seems to be mostly northern American (not sure about Mexico). Over here in Germany and neighbouring countries only very few people drink it or ever did so. Coke Zero is much more prominent and also gets much more push from the company. Diet Coke never was big here.
I never drank much normal coke. Hated Diet Coke but actually drank quite some Coke Zero. My reason was that I don't like coffee. I love tea. But it's hard to get good tea while travelling. Same with water if it's not absurdly overpriced to tap water. And I had to travel and commute a lot by train, staying a lot in hotels, so not able to make myself a drink at home. As I wanted to give me a little bit of caffeine in the morning I chose Coke Zero.
But when I didn't need to do those trips any more I stopped buying them and had no issue at all to go back to tea and water. I never ever would have thought that others are heavily hit with real addiction. I always assume that people buy them out of convenience and being used to getting them. And believing that they don't like pure water.
I always was used to drink just water (that us plain tap water) when I was doing sports. And it was the mayor drink when I was a child. And when I'm thirsty I actually first crave for water. It's what my body asks for in those situations. Any soda would only be the second option. Or third, after water with lemon or seldom an alcohol free beer. Water with lemon is a very popular drink in Austria, where I spend quite some time.
Yes a lot of people over here drink soda as such. And it is zn issue for public health. But there are not many people who would say they need diet coke or even need a specific brand. There are also a lot of smaller soda brands over here. And coke in the discounters are often enough house brands and neither coca cola nor Pepsi.
This made me crave a Diet Coke
Sorry about that 😬
Haha, me too! Mmmmm Coke... 'drools'
I loved Mountain Dew, cereal, and ice cream while in trade school for three years. Got back home and got a job at the local car dealer. I had lightened up on the ice cream and cereal but was still drinking many, many cans of soda every week (work stress did not help, either). Drank a minimum of two cans daily at that job (there have been days where I would have up to six!) and I did this for about five years. Finally made the decision to leave that job and cut out the soda in 2011.
The first year was rough, I would still have some soda just about every week. However, it was nowhere near what it was like before. But I knew I could do better and kept working at it.
Here it is over a decade later and I don't have that harsh craving for the stuff anymore. I will drink it when there is something like a BBQ or potluck, but on normal days I rarely touch it. Probably have (maybe) about four cans in a six-month period (which is a way better result compared to four cans daily at my old job).
TL;DR: I used to crave soda and depended on it for almost a decade. I have been able to overcome it. Can show strict discipline when I do drink soda and have been able to do so successfully for over a decade now.
This is a really good video and is worth a watch! The scriptwriter and editors did a great job! Good delivery on this topic, Levi, keep it up! 🐺🔧
In Canada we have Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero.
Back in the early 00s when I was in junior high, I tried to explain to my gym teacher why diet coke was really bad for her (she drank it like water and I had just done a report for biology on how the brain processed aspartame as though it were sugar, but didn't get the reward it expected), but I probably didn't explain it quite so well because she told me I was a) wrong b) shouldn't trust everything I read on the internet. Either way, I feel very validated rn. And happy my brain HATES the taste of aspartame. I know immediately that I bought the wrong yogurt and to get that garbage out of my mouth fast. Yuck.
aspartame hate club🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
People really love dismissing things they don't want to hear with "You shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet" lmao
Also, it could cause more food cravings. I knew a guy addicted to diet Pepsi and gained 100 lbs
@@IzzyKitt I rather have a cane sugar coke/Pepsi than any diet drink. Stick with water
im surprised you didnt mention the higher caffeine levels in diet coke vs regular!
It is also a migraine staple. Whenever I had one as a kid, my mom would give me a Diet Coke and a Tylenol
I use a LOT of sucralose (splenda) in my drinks, but one thing that I make sure to do is always add a small amount of sugar to it, so that my drink does actually have a few calories, it's the perfect balance between sweetness and actual calories imo, though I'm usually making my drink from scratch rather than drinking a zero calorie soda
You do realize that sugar substitutes don't "have calories" only because the FDA says they don't, right? There are still calories in a sugar substitute since your body breaks them down; it just works in a different way than sugar. You can even get diabetes if you have enough of a sugar substitute.
I think I've literally drank diet coke once, just once, in my 46 years here on earth so far. I still remember feeling it tasted odd the first time I tried and I've never looked back. Btw, I don't drink much regular sugary pops either. Just 1/2 a bottle of Canada Dry once a month or so. Water is king in my household.
Sadly my parents are the poster children for this effect. I think the worst part is that they think they're failures when any of those side effects hit.
My go to sodas are Dr. pepper and Mr. Pibb. I worked in a supplement warehouse and I love sugar but I sometimes can't stomach sucralose, stevia and other fake sugars. I end up barfing every time. I usually stick to cane sugar.
Well, unsurprisingly, here’s an attempt at “diet-diet Coke” that’s “healthier” than Diet Coke. I don’t think you can find it much of anywhere, but it does exist: it’s called “Coke Life” with Stevia and Cane sugar (rolling eyes), the one with the green label you used to find a few years back. …Actually, there’s an idea I’d love to see on the Future Proof Health channel: Stevia. Is it good, or not so much? And is the stuff you get in the packets actually just “natural” Stevia? (spoiler alert: read the ingredients. Nope.). And here’s another question -who actually produces this stuff? Isn’t PepsiCo involved in Truvia (a “stevia” product available in the US)?
That's super interesting! We'd love to dive into aspartame in general and compare with Stevia, while looking into different products containing Stevia. We're always looking for new ideas so we really appreciate the suggestion, thanks for sharing Shelbi!!
The stevia I get doesn’t come in packets and is just processed stevia. My grandma grew stevia in her garden. The stuff in stores is highly processed, though. (As is any sweetener, even sugar.)
👏👏 exactly. Stevia is just the new aspartame.
It’s cancer unless you buy a stevia plant for your house- and it won’t taste as good
I second this, please look into stevia because I use it but can't understand why they mix it with another sweetener. It's sweet enough on its own!
The one I buy is mixed with dextrose but it also comes mixed with erythro something or other, which can cause stomach cramps & diarrhea. No thank you!
I LOVED Coca Life!!! They had it in France back in like 2015-2018 but then just yeeted but that was essentially the only Coke I drank!! Stopped Coke entirely one summer and replaced it with beer 😂 then replaced beer with water. The switch was actually so easy from coke to beer then water
MatPat is a CLEAR example of this!
I liked "Coke Life" they had a while back, which was half sugar half stevia. you still got some of those calories and it didn't have the sickly sweet taste of aspartame... Probably still not good... but they did the whole "healthy" branding with the green can... Damn I miss that stuff haha
I miss coke life 😢
I’ve always gotten a sick feeling from drinking diet sodas. I have to avoid artificial sweeteners like aspartame because they tend to cause headaches for me. And I’ve read so many studies on how people have major health issues related to them, but like you said, they care addictive, and people won’t stop drinking them. It’s a vicious cycle.
As a fellow aspartame avoider due to headaches/migraines that progress to blackouts after maybe a week of low grade dosing, no alcohol, I was in highschool and wasn't using alcohol or drugs. I was chewing gum that had aspartame in it to help deal with school and working in fast food when I figured out what was going on. One blackout happened at school and the other I don't remember going to work that morning I just kinda came out of it right before lunch rush wondering how the fuck I got there and if I was acting weird before I became aware. I haven't had issues since I avoid aspartame and most artificial sweeteners. I also know a person who's gout flares up when they get exposed to aspartame. Makes me so pleased when people try to tell me that something other than the aspartame is my problem.
I prefer Diet Coke to the other kinds. Coke Zero tastes bad unless you get one of the flavoured ones, and some of those aren't great either. And, after I got into the habit of drinking sugar free fizzy drinks, regular Coke tastes really weird to me.
Matt Patt is the first person that came to mind when I clicked on this video 😂
More than two or three cans of Diet Coke will overload the liver, because of the excess of sweeteners it has to process.
When the liver is overloaded, you will feel a slight sense of nausea. When this happen, you need to stay one week without drinking Diet Coke, so the liver can recover.
By time to time, I replace Diet Coke with one squeezed lemon in 200 mL of cold sparkling water, with no sugar or sweeteners. This is much healthier, and the body seems to like the swap...
Great video! Would've loved for you to cover Coke's other cousin, the sugar free one. Any leads on hidden results.?
Hey there, from what we've found Coke Zero and Diet Coke are super similar! There's just a couple of different ingredients in Coke Zero to make it taste closer to regular Coke, so health effects and all that jazz still applies. Hope this helps!
@@FutureProofTV thank you for the quick return!
I had my first and last Diet Coke last week and it was so odd and fake tasting but also fascinating. I was amazed it had 0 calories but then I realised it was pretty much coke flavoured fizzy water so I stuck to my all time favourite drink… water 😇
That's where we're at too, water is usually the best bet. Also not so keen on the flavour of aspartame tbh 😅
Funny you should bring up "healthy coke" at the end. For a time, they did sell something called "Cola Life" or something like that, and I think it had about half the amount of sugar in it as regular coke. It tasted alright to me, but it mustn't have sold well because they stopped making it. I'm also still waiting for them to bring back mango and peach flavours.
it was the stevia one, with fewer side effects than aspartame, but still had a hefty amount of sugar, so it was a compromise that made no sense. they just should make a full stevia one.
Sparkling water through a sodastream is a great way for me to get my fizzy fix. Now i only have sodas only when i go out with friends or family to eat(which is not often)
Diet Coke is easily accessible to those who are definitely conscious of their consumption. It's less sugar, less worries, as some people would say.
and in some ways more unhealthy than regular coke.
@@Timotarius_ not true
@@genisarnalespinach7531 You might want to do a deep dive on aspartame.
@@tara-lee what's it bad about it?
@@genisarnalespinach7531 Bad for your brain & slightly diuretic.
"Demonizing" diet drinks is like the last thing people should do to become healthy, it'll erode teeth, doesn't inherently lead to any other issue
2:02 “hmm random white substance in a chemistry lab… *licks*”
I love that thought process 💀
Fascinating watch as always 🙏🏿
I don't understand why so many people drink Diet Coke, i thought it had an extremely well-known reputation for tasting bad and being worse than regular coke. I remember a lot of people being outraged upon learning about how bad and dangerous their artificial sweeteners are. There was even a big trend recently of people wanting only real sugar instead of HFCS or artificial sweetenere, so why did nothing change??
Pepsi-max and coke no sugar taste good but yeah diet coke is all aftertaste.
@@ADerpyReality right!?
Is Diet being worse than regular Coke not concluded as a complete myth?
There isn't really strong evidence to show that aspartame is harmful, stuff like that is mostly from misleading studies blown up by the media (unfortunately common on social media). Most of the main soda brands have a "zero" option now, which cuts down on aspartame so it doesn't taste bad. I'd argue coke zero and dr.pepper zero taste very similar or even better than the regular soda these days, but I'm not a fan of their diet versions.
Even with the list of possible symptoms caused by artificial sweeteners that they provide in the video, a lot of those are related to obesity. If the study doesn't adjust for diet coke drinkers being disproportionately unhealthy in other ways, it can make the symptoms like diabetes appear to be linked to the sweetener when there isn't a significant connection.
@@senna1995 yeah obviously regular coke is worse for you, but diet coke isnt that much better. Both are very bad for you, diet is just bad for you in different ways.
Yuck!
You can say that again 🤮
@@FutureProofTV 👍
I first learned of diet coke addiction in 2017, had a friend named Bobby at summer camp who had a whole stash in his bags. He tolde the first ones free, then I needed another one and another one, and before I knew it I was strung out and in debt
The early connection to Hollywood and the modeling industry is interesting because a common joke now is, "I never see thin people drinking Diet Coke."
Glad that he also didn’t include the research on people who lost weight drinking diet soda and kept the weight off compare to people who only drinks water, who gain weight.
And using link to possible diseases as direct cause, what a great channel
Cool, you lose some weight but then you get cancer from the can of death. Great story 🙄
@@MrKjDrake all the link between artificial sweeteners and cancer are done with poor quality research with animals that has been overall debunked, on top of that, if you are scared of getting cancer, I hope you never get exposed to sunlight, or never touched sunscreen because they both causes cancer.
More than that, the point in his video saying sweetener is somehow 200x more potent than sugar, let’s just ignore that highly inflated number, and just say that if something is 200x as potent THEN WE WOULD PUT 200x LESS IN OUR FOOD, JESUS HAVE YOU GUYS EVER COOK BEFORE?
10:58, as always, in-depth review, that's why I like the coffee pods episode too.
Glad you get so much value out of these, we really enjoy the process of thinking up these video ideas and researching about them. Thank you for being a part of the team!
I’m obsessed with Dr Pepper Zero. I currently have 15 cases of various diet sodas in my garage
My mom was literally addicted to regular Coke. She would polish off a half a liter every day. She suffered from headaches, insomnia, irritability, and craved it all the time. It was only after her GP told her of all the harmful effects of the beverage did stop cold turkey, and stop drinking most types soda.
The guy from the black and white Coke light advertisement is still a role model to this day
Loving the visual puns in these videos!