Who invented diet coke

And Tab, for a brief period, was apparently the favorite of the bunch. In , Tab was reformulated yet again to include Nutrasweet, also known as aspartame. Consumers embraced the new drink and a string of celebrity endorsers only enhanced its popularity. Even though the flavor of the new beverage was not a carbon copy of the sugar-sweetened version, customers took to it.

And the main victim of Diet Coke was not the original Coke, but Tab. Yet the drink managed to retain some passionate devotees, even as rumors of its impending doom circulated on and off over the years. A Tab shortage in caused self-described Tab-aholics to stockpile their favorite beverage, and petitions to save the drink were circulated and sent to the company. Coca-Cola is trying to cut underperforming brands, and even modern ones like Odwalla juice and regional sodas like Delaware Punch are poised to fall prey to the cost-cutting guillotine.

The company says more than half of the brands it currently markets will disappear in the near future. Tab lovers might have less time than they think to load up; serious Tab fans have begun snapping up any six-packs that might still be lurking on store shelves. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Before there was Diet Coke, there was Tab.

By , reported Beverage Marketing , 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 press release , the Diet Coke can underwent a redesign to arrive at a slim new look. As Acevedo explained, the company's goal was to "be bold, think differently and be innovative. One of those secrets was her longtime Diet Coke habit, revealing that she drank at least one per day.

Looking back at her long life, Rowley recalled that when she turned , she "never thought I'd be I thought I'd pass away by that time but it just didn't happen. 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, particularly in older consumers. A 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 aged 65 and older.

The study monitored 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, undertaken by 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 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. A 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 "blunting" 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. Back in , a shocking infographic about the dangers of Coke became a viral sensation as it ricocheted throughout the internet.

That was followed by another focusing on the hazards of Diet Coke , claiming to detail the scientific effects on the human body one hour after drinking Diet Coke.

However, BuzzFeed broke down the infographic and reached out to some actual scientists to see if the information detailed in the infographics was accurate. As it turned out, the scientists were able to debunk many of the claims in both infographics, particularly one alleging that the combination of caffeine and aspartame in Diet Coke creates "an addictive high similar in the way cocaine works.

Saccharin and other chemical sweeteners left a metallic aftertaste. Then, from a commercial laboratory, they got cyclamate calcium, and No-Cal was accepted by the diabetic and those with cardiovascular illnesses who could not tolerate salts in the sanitarium. At first, they only offered a mild ginger ale flavor and sold it at dietetic counters. They initially diversified to two other flavors, root beer and their traditional black cherry, and then later added lime, cola, and chocolate flavors.

Absolutely Non-Fattening. Canada Dry was the next company to get involved in the diet soda craze. Between No-Cal and Glamour, by , over million bottles of diet soda were being sold per year. As was the case initially with No-Cal, the cola was aimed at diabetics and was sold at medical supply stores. Three years later, in , Diet-Rite appeared on Chicago grocery shelves and diet cola became the new fad there. One year later, Diet-Rite was being sold across the country.

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