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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

#31

Post by Ilverin »

Gigachad wrote: post #23
ddtaylor wrote: post #21

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

No. Aspartame is one of the most studied and tested substances on the planet and they still haven't linked a single problem to it. At least not one that doesn't relate to sweeteners in general. Nothing else has gone under so much scrutiny (Maybe MSG). Seems like a too good to be true situation where people can't accept its actually this good.

It causes higher blood pressure and is statistically associated with heart problems. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/do-you-really...

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

#32

Post by colordrops »

ck2 wrote: post #29

Diet soda and artificial sweeteners is a gateway crutch. Took years to stop drinking soda and decade of diet but finally kicked it. Worth the effort and recommended. Everyone is quick to hand wave "doesn't cause cancer" blah blah but what they hop and skip over is it definitely changes gut microbe for the worse.

What are your thoughts on soda water?

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

#33

Post by colordrops »

Gigachad wrote: post #23
ddtaylor wrote: post #21

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

No. Aspartame is one of the most studied and tested substances on the planet and they still haven't linked a single problem to it. At least not one that doesn't relate to sweeteners in general. Nothing else has gone under so much scrutiny (Maybe MSG). Seems like a too good to be true situation where people can't accept its actually this good.

It would be too good to be true if it didn't taste horrible.

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

#34

Post by colordrops »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #22
eitland wrote: post #19

> If you unzip aspartame into the two amino acids and remove that methyl to become methanol, you have a tasteless mixture of pretty harmless compounds. I'm somewhat surprised nobody has commented on this yet, so let me point it out: methanol is not harmless! It causes blindness or death. (I don't say diet soda is harmful, only that methanol is.)

Your statement about the toxicology of methanol is correct, but as the article alludes too, and the referenced paper goes into detail on, the dosage is below the point where it harms people. (I don't recall off hand if they considered an infant being fed an entire can of soda in the paper so I'm not going to say that as a blanket statement) As for the toxicology limit. If the maximum amount of methanol has been creat…

Is damage from methanol not cumulative? My understanding is that it rubberizes nerve and brain tissue.

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

#35

Post by jnwatson »

bwilliams18 wrote: post #13
rootusrootus wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would expect freezing a plastic bottle would be okay. We do it all the time with water. Which isn't exactly the same, I know.

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.

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

#36

Post by mmastrac »

colordrops wrote: post #32
ck2 wrote: post #29

Diet soda and artificial sweeteners is a gateway crutch. Took years to stop drinking soda and decade of diet but finally kicked it. Worth the effort and recommended. Everyone is quick to hand wave "doesn't cause cancer" blah blah but what they hop and skip over is it definitely changes gut microbe for the worse.

What are your thoughts on soda water?

I love soda water but the last study I read suggested it was carbonation that should be avoided. I still drink it.

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

#38

Post by enraged_camel »

geocrasher wrote: post #18
bwilliams18 wrote: post #13

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.

This hasn’t been my experience with Diet Coke I’ve accidentally left in the freezer overnight. As long as I let it sit on the counter and thaw over the course of a few hours, it retains its carbonation, or at least some of it.

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

#39

Post by airstrike »

jnwatson wrote: post #35
bwilliams18 wrote: post #13

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.

That... was painful to read, I can only imagine what it was like cleaning it. I had a glass carbonated water bottle break in a similar fashion last year...

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

#40

Post by robk »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16
sircastor wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It does! (less water, so less hydrolysis) "name brand" syrup however isn't particularly economical at retail however[1]. Not too surprisingly there has been a rash of restaurant bankruptcies during the pandemic and so buying "used" soda fountain gear is actually pretty easy (at least in the western US) these days. I actually have an Elkay "water machine" which does carbonation (as well as chilled and not chilled stil…

Hello old Google coworker I had the same setup in Fort Mason in 2004 and was able to get the SF wholesaler to sell to us pretty regularly. Iirc it became a lot easier lately to just find generics on eBay and worry less about getting the hookup. Diet red bull was the holy grail but we found an okay proxy on eBay too.
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