What you NEED to know about diet soda
I think everyone can agree that soda in general is never a healthy choice on so many levels, but diet soda is even worse.
Diet soda first debuted in 1959 as an alternative for those with diabetes. The first diet sodas were sweetened with saccharin. According to Wikipedia in the United States saccharin is often found in restaurants in pink packets; the most popular brand is “Sweet’N Low“. A small number of soft drinks are sweetened with saccharin, the most popular being the Coca-Cola Company’s cola drink Tab, introduced in 1963 as a diet cola soft drink.
86% of Americans use diet products, including low-calorie, reduced-sugar, or sugar-free foods and beverages. In the U.S., consumers spend about $21 billion per year on these drinks. By comparison, these same consumers only spend $14 billion on organic food.
Precision Nutrition offers this breakdown of diet colas:
