Diet drinks - who else hates them?

[McNutt]

I read that for a percentage of the population, cilantro tastes like soap. This has something to do with your tastebuds and if you are part of that group it is always going to taste like soap.

I recently found out that there is a similar thing with diet sweeteners. I have often wondered how people can drink Diet Coke. It has a completely repulsive taste to me. Now it makes sense.

I have no idea how common this is though because I don't think I've had anyone agree with me that they taste like crap. Anybody here feel the same way?

[Jaymann]

I hate diet soft drinks as well. I try to avoid sugar soft drinks as well, maybe have one per week, but watered down if that's an option.

[ImLawBoy]

I've always hated them, but I always just blamed the cloying aftertaste of artificial sweeteners. It's moot now as I stopped drinking pop of all types years ago.

[Lassr]

I can drink some that hide the taste better like Coke Zero, Diet Dr Pepper. The New Raspberry Lemonade Mountain Dew Zero is very tolerable. There are others I can drink. It's worse in Tea to me.

[stimpy]

I cannot tolerate anything with any type of artificial sweetener in it.
I've tried countless different ones. Even the water enhancers.
They literally give me the shakes.

[Kraken]

The aftertaste of Diet Coke -- Wife's beverage of choice -- always makes me grimace. I'm OK with whatever the sweetener is in Coke Zero. But I almost never drink soda except to wash down a pill or something.

[Skinypupy]

I recently found out that there is a similar thing with diet sweeteners. I have often wondered how people can drink Diet Coke. It has a completely repulsive taste to me. Now it makes sense.

Same for me. I find the taste of diet sweetners absolutely vile, especially the aftertaste.

I really wish I could drink Diet soda though, as I usually drink 1-2 cans of cherry Pepsi a day. It's a terrible habit, but one I simply have not been able to quit. Switching to diet would really help...alas.

[LordMortis]

I assumed everyone tasted diet drinks as if they were repulsive and not sweet and that people just developed a taste for them. Shows what I know.

Pop is mostly out of my diet nowadays. I never keep it at home. I rarely eat out and when I do I mostly drink water. But when I do drink a sickly sweet soda, it is always sooooo good. Especially Coke.

I also have the cilantro nastiness factor which ruins everything it is in.

[ImLawBoy]

I really wish I could drink Diet soda though, as I usually drink 1-2 cans of cherry Pepsi a day. It's a terrible habit, but one I simply have not been able to quit. Switching to diet would really help...alas.

I think there are a number of studies that show it doesn't really help to switch to diet. Something about the sweetness triggering a craving for calories that your body doesn't get from the diet drink, so you tend to eat more elsewhere. You might as well stick with the sugary stuff or just cut it out altogether.

Not to get on too high on this particular horse, but I always figured it would be challenging to quit drinking pop, as I regularly had 2-3 Cokes (or Mountain Dew, or root beer, or whatever) per day. When I decided to stop drinking sugary drinks, I wasn't sure how it would go. Turns out it was easy. Maybe it's just that delicious Lake Michigan water, but I'm happy with a glass of ice water sitting next to me. [edit] To make it even better, I lost 20 pounds or so with only that change over the next couple of months. [/edit]

[McNutt]

I rarely drink sodas now too and it was pretty easy to get on without them.

[Skinypupy]

Not to get on too high on this particular horse, but I always figured it would be challenging to quit drinking pop, as I regularly had 2-3 Cokes (or Mountain Dew, or root beer, or whatever) per day. When I decided to stop drinking sugary drinks, I wasn't sure how it would go. Turns out it was easy. Maybe it's just that delicious Lake Michigan water, but I'm happy with a glass of ice water sitting next to me. [edit] To make it even better, I lost 20 pounds or so with only that change over the next couple of months. [/edit]

I've tried quitting a few times, and it never sticks. I think it's mostly because it's ingrained in my daily routine (one in the morning as a start work, one during evening gaming). I haven't quite figured out how to short-circuit those impulses yet.

I'm sure that quitting would give me the additional weight loss nudge I've been looking for, but I can't seem to do it. I drink lots of water as well (at least two 40 oz bottles/day), but the soda...it just calls to me.

[LordMortis]

To make it even better, I lost 20 pounds or so with only that change over the next couple of months. [/edit]

I shed 30 short term but then I put it all back on. The I did a draconian calorie count and lost 60 and then I put it all back on. Now to get back to that level I i'd need to shed 70. I'm trying it with a change to more produce and working diligently at getting back to an active lifestyle. So far I've managed to put on 10 pounds. I'm at a career high 260.

Coke was easy for my quit by going to full on coffee. It's taken my a long time to reduce the amount of sugar and non dairy creamer in it though.

[ImLawBoy]

I drink my coffee black, so no additional calories there.

On a side note, I haven't had any coffee since my surgery (part of my diet is supposed to cut out things that are stressful to the digestive system like caffeine), and it's been tough. Even after I stopped taking painkillers for the surgery I was still taking ibuprofen and Tylenol for the caffeine withdrawal headaches. I'm good now, but I'm definitely looking forward to adding coffee back into my routine a week from this Friday (which will be 6 weeks from surgery, not that I'm counting the days).

[Skinypupy]

I actually wish I drank coffee. It would make the caffeine withdrawls when I do eventually quit soda that much easier.

But coffee is one of the drinks I think tastes far worse than diet soda. Blech.

[Anonymous Bosch]

As someone who has never much enjoyed drinking plain water, I use fruit-infusing water bottles, and find they provide plenty of adequate flavour to more easily achieve daily fluid intake requirements:



Nutrients leak out of the fruit directly into the water, which makes for a more pleasant-tasting and healthier alternative to artificially-sweetened 'water enhancers' and the like, minus the additional calories or fructose of pure fruit juice. Flavours are more akin to the likes of La Croix, so nowhere near as sweet as regular soda, but surprisingly pleasant nonetheless once you become accustomed to it.

[Max Peck]

Diet sodas... ugh.

I mostly just drink water, but I add some lemon juice. Partly for flavor and partly because the citrate is supposed to help prevent kidney stones.

[Sudy]

I've always found artificial sweeteners gross. They're just too sweet and often have a cloying aftertaste. I managed to make Diet Coke work for me during about a six-month period that I was dieting before I met Mrs. Nym for the first time, but it was more of a concession when I ordered a fast food combo. I didn't "like" it, but I learned to live with it along with McDonald's grilled chicken sandwiches and side salads. It caused a bit of a quandary though; soda may not be healthy, but it does contain energy and it makes me happy. Diet sodas contain no energy and don't really satisfy my cravings, so why the hell am I paying to drink them?

Fresca is an exception. I didn't even initially realize Fresca's sweetened with aspartame. The flavour is almost buried by the grapefruit flavour I really like. My psychiatrist recommended I try artificial sweeteners, so I've been drinking Fresca again a bit and I also tried Mountain Dew Zero Sugar for the first time. It's... OK. At first sip it actually tastes like the regular version, and the aftertaste isn't as bad as other newer zero-calorie sodas. But it's just not good enough. I don't see the point in buying it regularly as opposed to just forcing myself to drink water instead, or trying to reduce my intake of the full-sugar version.

Whoever develops an acceptable artificial sweetener will both make a fortune and save the human race.

[stimpy]

My psychiatrist recommended I try artificial sweeteners

Can you expand on the reasoning behind this????

[Sudy]

Just working out some serious Oedipal shit.

[Daehawk]

Cant take anything diet. The taste is awful and lots of times it makes me sick at my stomach to boot. What I really hate is seeing a new fruit drink and reading the first part of whats in it and it says sugar so I buy it only to start drinking it and see down the list is some fake sugar too. Yeeach.

[stimpy]

Just working out some serious Oedipal shit.

Was curious as to what role artificial sweeteners would play in addressing psychological issues.
I could use all the help I can get........

[YellowKing]

I'm perfectly fine with diet, and I drank them for so long I really can't tell much of a taste difference between them and regular soft drinks other than they don't seem as sickly sweet to me.

I still drink them on occasion at a restaurant or a movie, but I don't buy them to drink at the house. For regular drinking, I've switched over to sparkling waters.

[hepcat]

ANYTHING can be a diet drink if you just believe hard enough...

[Rumpy]

It only ever happens to be rarely on certain diet drinks, if a formula happens to be off for a certain batch, for instance. Diet 7Up is the one that comes to mind. There are times that it comes on so strong and cloyingly, and as such I rarely drink it.

[rittchard]

I can’t stand them either, there’s just some odd after-taste (or during taste) that grosses me out. I used to think it was psycho-somatic (is that the right word?) but I’ve tried so many and tried to force myself to like them, but it just doesn’t work. I can tolerate some Gatorade versions but they always still gross me out. The very latest version of New Coke was pretty close to OK but still gave me a weird after taste pukey feel.

Oh another recent anecdote. My partner mistakenly bought sweetened tea (we generally only drink unsweetened iced tea, though I will sometimes mix with lemonade) but I didn’t realize it. So I was eating a meal and went to take a big gulp and almost spit it out, it was just so grossly sweet. I know a lot of it was mental because of what my mind was anticipating, but still it was really gross. And then a week later it happened again LOL.

It’s really frustrating to me because in spite of my normal affinity towards sugar, I wouldn’t mind a significantly less sweet version of many drinks like lemonade, etc. but it’s hard to come by so if I’m not lazy I’ll try diluting them.

[Jaymon]

Aspartame gives me headaches. It also tastes terrible. Its easy to avoid in diet drinks, just Don't drink them. Buts its harder when they hide it in diet food and such, constantly squinting and then grunting in frustration at lower calorie foods, when trying to red the ingredients, and then finding artificial sweeteners in them.

[hepcat]

I bought a 12 pack of what I thought was regular 7 Up a few weeks ago. The first one tasted off to me. Then I tried another a few days later and realized it was pretty gross. Only then did I look at the can and realize it was something called "Simply 7 Up", which has been introduced into our communities disguised in such a way as to look very similar to non-poisonous 7 Up.

[dbt1949]

I am the only one at OO who likes diet drinks.
So there.
On the other hand I don't drink too many sodas. I've been using sweet n low for over 60 years and so far so good.

[hepcat]

Diet goat milk is a thing?

[Isgrimnur]

Simply 7 Up

Stevia, in this case.

[Sudy]

Just working out some serious Oedipal shit.

Was curious as to what role artificial sweeteners would play in addressing psychological issues.
I could use all the help I can get........

Nothing groundbreaking I'm afraid. The Sud gained nearly 50 pounds during the pandemic and was already a fat fuck before that. The shrink rightfully deduced that my weight is a primary contributor to my physical and mental health issues and recommended I try diet drinks to cut some calories. It seems he drinks them himself (though he's in shape), so probably just hoping it's something that could work for me in spite of some of the evidence of them being unhelpful for weight loss being mentioned by others in this thread.

[hepcat]

Simply 7 Up

Stevia, in this case.

I don't care what guy created it, it sucked!

[Isgrimnur]

Simply 7 Up

Stevia, in this case.

I don't care what guy created it, it sucked!

[hepcat]

I'm not a proud man.

[El Guapo]

I hate Diet Coke. It's the only diet soda that I affirmatively hate, though - Coke Zero is great, and most other diet sodas (diet Pepsi, diet Dr Pepper) are ok to good.

[Max Peck]

Simply 7 Up

Stevia, in this case.

Well, no wonder it tasted like poison.

[Carpet_pissr]

Just working out some serious Oedipal shit.

Was curious as to what role artificial sweeteners would play in addressing psychological issues.
I could use all the help I can get........

Nothing groundbreaking I'm afraid. The Sud gained nearly 50 pounds during the pandemic and was already a fat fuck before that. The shrink rightfully deduced that my weight is a primary contributor to my physical and mental health issues and recommended I try diet drinks to cut some calories. It seems he drinks them himself (though he's in shape), so probably just hoping it's something that could work for me in spite of some of the evidence of them being unhelpful for weight loss being mentioned by others in this thread.

IIRC they aren't just unhelpful in losing weight, they can actually cause people to gain weight due to the aforementioned sweetness craving. I won't even get into all the likely cancer-causing that artficial ingredients are notorious for.

[Carpet_pissr]

soda may not be healthy, but it does contain energy and it makes me happy. Diet sodas contain no energy

Are you forgetting caffeine? It's a much better source of energy than toxic, addictive sugar.

[Sudy]

soda may not be healthy, but it does contain energy and it makes me happy. Diet sodas contain no energy

Are you forgetting caffeine? It's a much better source of energy than toxic, addictive sugar.

Unfortunately coffee, though I love the taste, turns my colon into a cannon about 80% of the time. Never got on the tea bandwagon... don't care for the tannins. There are a few I don't mind but I wouldn't want to drink it every day.

Honestly my real problem is juice. I'm addicted to citrus and Ocean Spray products.

[Carpet_pissr]

soda may not be healthy, but it does contain energy and it makes me happy. Diet sodas contain no energy

Are you forgetting caffeine? It's a much better source of energy than toxic, addictive sugar.

Unfortunately coffee, though I love the taste, turns my colon into a cannon about 80% of the time. Never got on the tea bandwagon... don't care for the tannins. There are a few I don't mind but I wouldn't want to drink it every day.

Honestly my real problem is juice. I'm addicted to citrus and Ocean Spray products.

Sorry, I wasn't clear: many/most sodas contain caffeine.