Taste Of Diet Soda
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Diet sodas are prepared keeping in mind the people who want to lose weight and use less quantity of sugar for their fitness.
Different artificial sweeteners are utilized to enhance flavour of diet soda and some even use sugar with other artificial sweeteners. Opinion is mixed as far as flavour of these drinks is concerned. Assumptions are that the taste of only sugar drink is best. Diet drinks leave a bitter taste after use as per many consumers. Others feel that diet soda has no bitter aftertaste and that drinks sweetened by high fructose corn syrup an over-sweet aftertaste.
The first known artificial sweeteners were cyclamates. Many had the opinion that these sodas had a better taste than diet sodasthat followed. Around 1970 in US the FDA restricted the use of cyclamates. Lab animals suffered from cancer due to them. Even with that information, cyclamates are still used in some countries around the world, especially in diet soda.
Saccharin was used by American producers. But saccharin was believed by consumers to have a chemical aftertaste. Coca-Cola produced Tab by adding a small amount of sugar. During 1977, the FDA was said to put a restriction on saccharin as a carcinogen but a suspension was put on the restriction while studies were finished. This was lifted in 1991, but nearly every diet soda had shifted to using aspartame which is now the most common sweetener.
Two fresh sweeteners have come on the market sucralose called Splenda and Sunett or Ace K used with more or less amount of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners inspite of using alone. These are applied by low budget beverage producers. Just recently aspartame has started to be believed by consumers to be the causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome type illnesses.
Drinks prepared from artificial sweeteners are like natural sugar in taste.Due to it’s bad flavour and unknown risks critics are sceptical .
Along with health concerns of sugar substitutes and overuse of caffeine, just how effective diet sodas are as a weight loss tool has also come under a cloud.
Switching to diet soda may cause weight loss to the people who take regular soda in large amount.Animal studies have shown that artificial sweeteners causes gain in weight. The sweetness of the flavour induces an insulin response, causing blood sugar to stay in tissues but because blood sugar does not increase with artificial sugars hypoglycemia can result and people eat more at the next meal. Caloric intake increased causing increment in fat and body weight when sweeteners were given to rats.
So, the jury on how helpful diet soda is to losing weight is still out.