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Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

foodscienceinstitute.com

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Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#181

Post by andjd »

sircastor wrote: post #6
ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

Awesome! As someone who used to drink a lot of Diet Dr. Pepper (DDP) I could easily tell how close a given can (or bottle) was to its "use by" date. This makes for a great party trick [1] but otherwise has limited utility. It also made for some socially awkward situations where, when visiting friends, they would want to have drinks on hand that their guests like and would go out of their way to get some DDP for me, n…

Your note about the sweetener packets makes me curious if diet soda syrup lasts longer. This has been a reason for me to hold off on putting together my own carbonation setup as, in spite of how much soda I drink, I still don’t think I could move through the requisite 2.5 gallons of syrup before the expiration date hit. I wonder if the aspartame suffers the same hydrolysis in syrup.

Note also that most soda fountain syrups also use saccharine instead of aspartame. This is probably so the syrup doesn't go bad as quickly. The transition to aspartame was driven by a study that showed that saccharine caused cancer in rats. That study had issues, but it had enough of an impact that consumers looked for alternatives. For soda machines, there usually isn't an ingredient list visible to the consumer, so that pressure to switch to aspartame didn't exist. There was a class-action lawsuit a few years ago claiming harm from the fountain formulation of diet sodas being different from the same brand sold at retail, but I believe it was thrown out.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#182

Post by acuozzo »

thrown_22 wrote: post #48

>Later, when he licked his fingers to turn a page, he discovered a very sweet taste. Since he realized that the compound he made was unlikely to be toxic, he tasted it and found it extremely sweet indeed. In fact, aspartame is about 200 times as sweet by weight as sugar. This is horrifying.

If you think this is horrifying, then I'd suggest reading the origin story of Sucralose.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#183

Post by kevstev »

Nouser76 wrote: post #180
speedcoder wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try https://sodastream.com . The soda can be sweetened with syrups they sell, or sweeten with anything you like, like Mangrove Honey which is salty and rich in itself. Add Scotch for a new drink called a "Southern Bee Sting". Squirt of lemon optional.

Honestly, I made my own using this[0] setup and I've never been happier. I had Sodastream before and the cost of refills and inconvenience of restocking them meant that I didn't actually use it that much. I bought some fruit extracts on Amazon, put a few mL in a 2L of water, and have delicious seltzer water without vendor lock-in. Now we need to refill our 10lb tank every few months, unless there's some leak/gasket p…

How do you get the carbonation levels to an equivalent level of commercial equivalents? I have this same setup (used mostly for beer)- but when I tried to carbonate water, it was always a bit on the flat side.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#184

Post by gradschool »

bradhoffman wrote: post #159

Similar topic, but after having COVID and losing my taste and smell for a few weeks, all carbonated sodas "taste off" for me. I've talked to a few people who have had similar experiences and after a year later, all of my regular Cokes still taste off :/

I was thinking about this yesterday when reading that some people with long covid experience the smell of meat as that of decaying dead flesh, which none of us wants to hear but is not technically wrong. Could it be that whereas we're socialized toward certain perceptions, a disorderly shutdown of the senses causes something like a reboot to factory settings?

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#185

Post by iszomer »

Bayart wrote: post #176
CraigRood wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its related to OP, but maybe to your experience. I have a friend that pointed out to me that Regular Coca Cola in both cans and bottles taste different between the product labeled as "Made in GB" to those that are not labeled as such, even with full UK labeling and identical ingredients. Once you pick up on it, you can tell straight away. I suspect UK cans without "Made in GB" are produced elsewhere in…

I've seen the same in France. Coca Cola sold in heavily discounted stores used to taste quite a bit worse than regular « Made in France » Coca Cola. I suspected it was made on the cheap somewhere and imported, like a lot of products there. I don't think I could find it anymore, as those stores have mostly disappeared (and those that still exist like Lidl and Aldi had to go up-market and significantly improve their qu…

The real difference is Coca Cola made with real sugar than the more common HFCS.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#186

Post by jcranberry »

ddtaylor wrote: post #21

Is the "jury still out" on Aspertame causing health problems like cancer?

From the article:

Diet Coke mythology You can’t discuss diet sodas for very long before someone brings up the old saw the diet sodas cause weight gain. The theory was that the sweetness induces hunger and you eat more actual food to satisfy it.

In 2008 Fowler and Williams[5] published a paper noting a correlation between obesity and diet soda consumption. A correlation, not causation. But in 2009, Chen and Appel [6] monitored 810 adults for 18 months, recording their beverage intake. They found weight gain from sugar sweetened beverages and but no weight gain from artificially sweetened beverages.

Finally, in 2012, Maersk and Belza [7] compared satiety scores for milk, sugar sweetened beverages and artificially sweetened beverages, and found no evidence that artificially sweetened beverages increased appetite or energy intake, concluding that “diet colas had effects similar to water.”

Regarding unfounded rumors that artificially sweetened beverages had some neurological effect, a panel of 10 experts examined all the current literature [8] and concluded:

The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior. Epidemiological studies on aspartame include several case-control studies and one well-conducted prospective epidemiological study with a large cohort, in which the consumption of aspartame was measured. The studies provide no evidence to support an association between aspartame and cancer in any tissue. The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.

So aspartame is safe before and after it degrades into the component amino acids, but for the best taste, you should check each package’s expiration date.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#187

Post by iszomer »

Pooge wrote: post #170
iamricks wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with Aspartame, and no amount of diet soda will even come close to dangerous levels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

Probably, but I'd rather drink only water and tea. Considering how bad I feel after just a bottle of Coca-Cola Zero, I'd rather not try it again and stick with natural drinks. I think we've allowed our society to become addict to sugar, and I don't think Aspartame is our savior.

This is anecdotal but drinking any soda causes me to pee harshly while tea has the opposite effect.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#188

Post by drewzero1 »

evgen wrote: post #153
FroshKiller wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also true in the US, although I would add that being down for something connotes a tiny bit more enthusiasm than being up for it, since "down" is also used in the context of making a commitment, e.g. "put me down for two boxes" or "I'll mark you down as present."

The latter case is related more to 'writing something down [on paper]' than to a standard up/down usage that implies directionality.

And certainly being marked down has different connotations from being written up!

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#189

Post by Bayart »

iszomer wrote: post #185
Bayart wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen the same in France. Coca Cola sold in heavily discounted stores used to taste quite a bit worse than regular « Made in France » Coca Cola. I suspected it was made on the cheap somewhere and imported, like a lot of products there. I don't think I could find it anymore, as those stores have mostly disappeared (and those that still exist like Lidl and Aldi had to go up-market and significantly improve their qu…

The real difference is Coca Cola made with real sugar than the more common HFCS.

Are you American ? In Europe, sugar is much more common than corn syrup. Germany and France are massive sugar beets producers.

In any case, you might be right in this instance.

Re: Why does my diet soda taste off? Aspartame hydrolysis

#190

Post by hilbert42 »

tnbp wrote: post #169
hilbert42 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That type of problem is found throughout chemistry but usually an accepted nomenclature applies (when it doesn't is when we get into troubles). So why did Wiki make the change when I pointed the matter out if it is incorrect? I'd now suggest you get it corrected. Edit: also tell Wiki that it shouldn't post inconsistent information as it only confuses (similarly ChemSpider). Edit 2: 'aspartame is a trivial name'. Very…

>That type of problem is found throughout chemistry but usually an accepted nomenclature applies (when it doesn't is when we get into troubles). It is not. Nobody who is into chemistry is confused by it, and those who are usually learn something new when they first stumble upon it. >So why did Wiki make the change when I pointed the matter out if it is incorrect? Possibly because most Wikipedians aren't chemists and…

There's no point in me continuing this discussion with a closed mind.

No offense intended.

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