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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

#231

Stop drinking coke! It's not well for you. Especially when you get older. The problem lies within the phosphoric acid added in plenty amounts. It's not exactly only coca cola's problem, but it adds up. Phosphorus is been added everywhere - from Sausages (e.g. the one in hot dogs. Or, The one's intended to be grilled like the GERMAN SAUSAGE) to muffins. I think, it's called sometimes backing soda - the powder you add…

> I think, it's called sometimes backing soda - the powder you add to make cakes or croissants fluffy. Not to compare with the Natrium bicarbonate which is ... That's a really strong claim, that someone would mix up the label of baking soda (it literally has "soda" in the name, aka sodium aka natrium if you're not English) with phosphoric acid. As for the rest of this, it's the sort of thing that might have some trut…

It goes with the same.. for baking soda you need some acid to start production of CO2.

If you having a sour-acidic ingredient like "vinegar" or Orange juice, the reaction starts at once even before you can put it in the oven.

If you want to start the reaction after some time and at an higher temperature, there is no way to do it without an agent. It breaks apart to acid at certain temperature. The agents used are 99% of times phosphates -> phosphorus. The baking powder free of phosphorus is quite of a seldom taste imo

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

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but do you mean that you drink sweetened water?

May sounds weird, but is that not what tons of popular drinks basically are? Half water, half sugar, a few vitamins/electrolytes + coloring.

Well there's also flavour, makes a big difference

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

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched from drinking exclusively sugar soda to exclusively sugar-free soda, and very quickly ended up preferring the taste of the latter. But I also discovered that non-sugar sweeteners feel a lot… lighter? They're easier to drink, simply put; my body knows it's not sugar somehow. I also have discovered I don't like the sugar rush, feeling on the teeth or aftertaste of a sugary soda.

> But I also discovered that non-sugar sweeteners feel a lot… lighter? My theory: diet soda has no high fructose corn syrup, so it feels thinner (less viscous and sticky).

I live in the EU, so my reference point is sucrose (normal sugar). But I think it makes it more syrupy, yeah.

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

#235
post #106
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Methanol is toxic because it is eventually metabolized into formic acid (the same venom used by ants) which interferes with cell metabolism.[1] If the amount of formic acid is high enough, cells can't maintain homeostatis and die. Certain cells with higher metabolic demands (such as nerve cells) die first. If the dosage is below that threshold, you're fine. The FDA considers 0.5mg/kg/day of methanol to be unlikely to…

That actually made me reconsider drinking diet soda, the numbers are on the same order of magnitude I thought it would be much further apart. Is it possible that the aspartame hydrolizes in our guts after we drank it? "Disgusting drink check" wouldn't help then.

Well then you got the wrong message. A glass of wine can contain over 50mg of methanol. If something's at or below the FDA reference dose, it's not worth worrying about. The FDA is rather risk-averse and tends to set limits far below what would actually cause harm.

To give you another bit of data: The metabolite of methanol that actually causes damage (formic acid) is a common food additive and is naturally present in many fruits, honey, and of course ant venom. If tiny amounts caused issues, we'd know by now.

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

#236
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you find the source? I doubt that carbonation is a problem.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17023723/ Apparently some association to low bone density in women.

Well, this one supports the phosphoric acid bad thing, but not the carbonated being bad idea.

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

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your temp is too high, pressure is too low, or you didnt wait long enough.

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

#238
post #235
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That actually made me reconsider drinking diet soda, the numbers are on the same order of magnitude I thought it would be much further apart. Is it possible that the aspartame hydrolizes in our guts after we drank it? "Disgusting drink check" wouldn't help then.

Well then you got the wrong message. A glass of wine can contain over 50mg of methanol. If something's at or below the FDA reference dose, it's not worth worrying about. The FDA is rather risk-averse and tends to set limits far below what would actually cause harm. To give you another bit of data: The metabolite of methanol that actually causes damage (formic acid) is a common food additive and is naturally present i…

I have problems with my liver and don't drink alcohol anyway. As for FDA - they allow chlorinated chickens so I'm not so sure.

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

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The carbonation is the difference. It will explode as it becomes a slush and make a massive mess.

That just happened to me. I left a 2 liter in the freezer. I then transferred it to the fridge, thinking the gradual temperature change would be fine. I woke to a strange sound. The bottle had blown the fridge door open, a large gash down the side of the bottle, soda slush everywhere. It took me an hour to clean the fridge.

Was it already frozen when you transferred it to the fridge? That kind of sounds like it was supercooled and it happened to crash out while in the fridge. Once it freezes that's as high as the pressure will ever get, thawing it will only allow more CO2 to redissolve and lower the pressure.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The carbonation is the difference. It will explode as it becomes a slush and make a massive mess.

And if it survives, it's just totally flat afterward.

So long as you don't open the bottle before it has had time to redissolve the CO2 while being nice and cool you should be fine. Same thing applies to shaken or heated soda, so long as the CO2 doesn't leave the bottle it's reversible no problem.
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