Which sodas have aspartame

Diet sodas also harm the immune system because their acidity causes havoc with our gut bacteria. And the phosphoric acid that's present in many cans has been shown to leach calcium from our bones. While every diet soda is bad for you, some are clearly worse than others. We looked at various brands and closely imagined the ingredients of popular diet sodas in America. Read on to discover where your favorite cola landed—and discover our No. First, we measured the amount of artificial sweetener in each soda, paying special attention to aspartame , the most pervasive sweetener.

The low-calorie sugar alternative, made by joining two amino acids with an alcohol, is times sweeter than sugar—and the subject of controversy. Some researchers claim to have linked aspartame to brain tumors and lymphoma, but the FDA insists the sweetener is safe for humans.

We recommend you limit your consumption. And given the public's interest in limiting their aspartame intake, we gave demerits to diet sodas with high aspartame counts. Then, also docked points for high levels of ingredients you wouldn't expect in your beverage—like vegetable oils and tree bark—and gave high marks to brands with more natural blends.

And now, without further ado here are popular diet sodas ranked from the worst options to the one that isn't all that bad. Previously, this soda with the lime-green hue used to contain brominated vegetable oil, which has bromine something that was also said to be found in brominated flame retardants. In citrus-flavored soda drinks, BVO acts as an emulsifier, but it has since been removed from the Diet Dew's list of ingredients.

Still, there are plenty of reasons why this diet soda is still one to avoid! After a long day of hard work and play, do you like to sit back and relax and crack open a can of Glycerol Ester of Rosin? Didn't think so! The wood resin is added to many fruit sodas to help the fruit-flavored oils mix better with the water. While it's not necessarily harmful, let us repeat: you're drinking oil and water…. If you think you're doing yourself a favor by opting for Coca-Cola's sugar- and stevia-sweetened beverage over the traditional red can, you might want to take a closer look at the nutrition label.

Its natural packaging is there to distract you from the cold, hard facts: A ounce can of the stuff contains 24 grams of sugar, which is especially troubling given that The American Heart Association recommends men should consume no more than 36 grams of added sugar per day, and women shouldn't have more than 25 grams.

The World Health Organization even recommends we reduce our daily sugar intake to about 25 grams a day to most effectively ward off obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. In fact, the green can packs in as much sugar as you'll get from eating five Oreo cookies. Only the soda companies could blend two evils—high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners—and market it as a healthier choice.

The Ten line does just that. Pepper Ten may have just 10 calories per serving, but it also contains sneaky substances such as aspartame and caramel color. To easily burn off any of these sodas—without spending hours in the gym—don't miss this list of the essential best ways to speed up your metabolism. Is your local store sold out of Coke Zero Sugar? Try this wannabe, which adds extra caffeine from ginseng to fool folks into thinking this is an all-natural energy drink.

However, ace K and aspartame are said to be at least times sweeter than sugar, and sucralose is at least times sweeter, so manufacturers can make significant savings by swapping sugar for artificial sweeteners. For consumers too, drinks that rely on sweeteners rather than sugar work out cheaper. For now, that combination of lower prices and fewer calories is proving a hit with shoppers.

That lower figure in Europe points to another problem with artificial sweeteners, though. Because even if the authorities deem them safe, consumers on the Continent are fairly wary. Forty-seven per cent of consumers in Russia agree. And the UK audience may become more averse to artificial sweeteners yet.

These ingredients are made in laboratories through processes that require expertise in chemistry — many of which would sound offputting to your average punter.

Take aspartame. The process for making it is not for the squeamish. It is made by treating waste from genetically modified e. For example, the insulin used by most type one diabetics today is produced in a similar way to aspartame. But in the age of clean eating and all things natural, consumers may increasingly find this a disconcerting idea.

Register Now. Site powered by Webvision Cloud. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Soft Drinks. Aspartame is a sugar substitute approximately times sweeter than table sugar, so just a small amount is needed to sweeten food or beverages. Although it contains 4 calories per gram, the same number of calories in sugar, far less is needed to achieve sweetness, so, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation , it adds negligible calories to food.

It's one of the most popular artificial sweeteners, according to information provided by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Aspartame is composed of aspartic acid and phenylalanine, two amino acids. The U. Food and Drug Administration FDA approved the use of aspartame in carbonated beverages in , and many other leading global health agencies, including the World Health Organization, Health Canada and the European Food Safety Authority approve its use in foods and beverages.

The FDA says the acceptable daily intake for aspartame is 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, per day. This means that a person who weighs pounds can safely consume 3, milligrams of the artificial sweetener — or approximately 19 cans of diet soda — every day. For some people, however, consumption of aspartame is not safe.

A hereditary disorder called phenylketonuria requires you strictly limit your intake of phenylalanine, one of the components of aspartame. Always choose diet drinks without aspartame if you have this condition. The amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid are present in natural foods, however, so aspartame isn't the only source. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics points out that a serving of nonfat milk provides six to nine more of the amino acid phenylalanine and 13 times more aspartic acid than a beverage sweetened with aspartame.

The American Cancer Society notes that some rumors pointing to aspartame causing cancer do exist, but affirms that major health organizations have not found this to be true. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology published a meta analysis in April concluding that current evidence shows that consumption of low- and no-calorie sweeteners and beverages, including those containing aspartame, are not associated with an increased risk of cancer in humans.

According to the American Cancer Society , aspartame is approximately times sweeter than sugar. So only a very small amount is needed to give food and beverages a sweet flavor. A can of diet soda contains about milligrams of aspartame.

A pound kilogram person would have to drink more than 18 cans of soda a day to exceed the FDA daily intake. People who are taking medications for schizophrenia should also avoid aspartame. People with PKU have too much phenylalanine in their blood.

Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found in protein sources such as meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products. If you have this condition, aspartame is highly toxic. Tardive dyskinesia TD is thought to be a side effect of some schizophrenia medications.

The phenylalanine in aspartame may precipitate the uncontrolled muscle movements of TD. Research is ongoing to confirm or invalidate connections between these ailments and aspartame, but currently there is still inconsistent outcomes in studies. Some research reports increased risk, symptoms or disease acceleration, while others report no negative outcomes with aspartame intake. When it comes to diabetes and weight loss, one of the first steps many people take is to cut empty calories from their diets.

This often includes sugar. Aspartame has both pros and cons when considering diabetes and obesity. First, the Mayo Clinic states that, in general, artificial sweeteners may be beneficial for those with diabetes. Sweeteners may also help weight loss efforts, but this is usually only the case if you consume a lot of sugar-containing products before trying to lose weight.

Switching from sugary products to those containing artificial sweeteners may also reduce the risk of cavities and tooth decay. According to a PLoS One study , rats that were fed aspartame had lower body masses overall. One caveat to the results was that these same rats also had more gut bacteria as well as increased blood sugar. This increase in blood glucose was also linked to insulin resistance.

The research is far from conclusive about how aspartame and other nonnutritive sweeteners affect these diseases and others.