Coca-Cola, Diet

...found the last review about Coca-Cola, Diet written on Ciao was in 2002. So this is the time to write another time for this popular drink. Is there any change in the market of diet coke in these years? I think yes, a huge increase in sell!! Coke has even bigger market than last year!

What is diet coke sugar free?
A carbonated low calorie soft drink with vegetable extracts with sweeteners.
It is the first version of sugar ...
...introduced by Coca Cola company of United States.

~~~~~Availability & Price~~~~~~
Diet coke is available in all small shops and supermarket, vending machine and pubs, restaurants in different container and size, for example can and bottle with the most common packs and sizes are:
6 can Pack, 330ml coke in each can, current price about 2.75 GBP.
6 bottle pack, 500 ml in each bottle, current price about 2.50 GBP
more

~~~~~Addicted To Diet Coke~~~~~
I was not a coke lover or carbonated drink lover before but when I met my husband, I found he is a fan of Coke. After sometime I started drinking it too. How come he will drink alone and I will buy just a bottle of water? Now we buy the 15 can pack every 5 days or so. Is this a symptom of addiction? I think so. We both are now addicted to it. May be you won’t believe but my husband carries some cans all the time with him even while going for a party to our friend’s house in case they have something else to drink!!!!! I am sure it is addiction.
When I thought of writing a review of this I found the last review about Coca-Cola, Diet written on Ciao was in 2002. So this is the time to write another time for this popular drink. Is there any change in the market of diet coke in these years? I think yes, a huge increase in sell!! Coke has even bigger market than last year!

What is diet coke sugar free?
A carbonated low calorie soft drink with vegetable extracts with sweeteners.
It is the first version of sugar free coca cola, launched on July 9th, 1982. Manufactured and introduced by Coca Cola company of United States.

~~~~~Availability & Price~~~~~~
Diet coke is available in all small shops and supermarket, vending machine and pubs, restaurants in different container and size, for example can and bottle with the most common packs and sizes are:
6 can Pack, 330ml coke in each can, current price about 2.75 GBP.
6 bottle pack, 500 ml in each bottle, current price about 2.50 GBP
15 can pack, 330 ml in each can, current price about 4.20 GBP which contains 15% extra for free that is 15 cans for the price of 10.
2 Ltr bottle, current price about 1.20 GBP
Diet coke is also available in many online stores like Amazon.co.uk or Bizrate.co.uk etc.
Single bottle or can costs more than this value packs. A special note for the prices: You can always get some promotions on these price like for the most recent promotion I found 6can packX330ml can by 3.00 GBP from Somerfield as buy 1 get 1 free.
Sales of diet coke in Britain is second to US.

~~~~Look~~~~
The 6-can pack or 6-bottle pack comes in silver color plastic wrap and the 15-can pack comes in a silver color paper packet. The individual can is also silver color and recyclable in almost every part of this world. There is a sign of “recycle” on the container. We have special bin for the recyclable item and we throw our empty diet coke container on those bins only while at home. Most of the public places now have separate bin for recyclable item, it is better to use them while you have an empty diet coke can or bottle in your hand. The bottles are mostly made of plastic but I have seen some part of the world has more glass bottle than plastic which may be a good sign for green environment. I can see here in UK, mostly plastic bottles for 500ml and 2 lt container. The bottles are wrapped with a piece of silver color paper on it. So silver color is the symbol/indication of diet coke-sugar free!
~~~~Nutrition Information & Ingredients~~~~~~
The nutrition information are clearly written on every single bottle and can also on the big pack of 6- or 15- can and bottle.
Each 500 ml bottle or 330 ml can contains;
Energy 2.0 KJ, 0.5 Kcal
Protein 0gm
Fat 0 gm
Fibre 0 gm
Carbohydrate 0 gm
Sodium Trace <1%

Ingredients:
Carbonated water, color (caramel E 150d), sweeteners-Aspartame(the sweetener in Nutra Sweet, Aspartame is an artificial sweetener made of the amino acids phenyl alanine and aspartic acid and methanol) Acesulfame K, Flavouring agents-caffeine (mentioned on the can as “including caffeine” so there is something else which is not written on the container), Phosphoric acid.
Vegetable extract-not any proper information of vegetable extracts (for example what kind of vegetable and the quantity or %) is found on the container.

Although I did not find the ingredient “Potassium Benzoate” on any container but I read in articles that this compound is present in carbonated drink like diet coke to protect taste or acts as anti freezing agent and preservative. For this variety of diet coke, anti freezing component or preservative is not particularly mentioned on the container.

~~~~~~~Possible Health Hazards~~~~~~
Aspartame: A higher dose of this compound can cause leukemia and lymphoma.
Methanol from Aspartame: Aspartame is digested by our body and produces the starting material phenyl alanine, asprtate (salt of aspartic acid) and methanol. This methanol is converted to two very toxic material on the action of some enzyme inside our body.
BENZENE: The benzoate present in coke is subsequently break down in benzene and other component and this benzene is a well known carcinogenic compound (cancer causing).
The Food Standards Agency of UK has published a report about the benzene contain.
The full report:(http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2006/mar/benzenesurvey)
Soft drinks with caffeine: It can disrupt children's sleep and leave them feeling tired during the day
Other possible health hazards: Affect on bone and teeth, cause joint pain.

We have read about the above health hazard in different journal articles and news paper but are still consuming diet coke at least one can a day. I think this is a real addiction. It is hard to quit this habit but as long as we are in control, it should be of no problem!

~~~~~Taste~~~~
It has a mild sweet taste which I found is much less than the one with sugar or normal coke. A light flavour probably for the caramel. A fizzy drink and so best when you drink ice cold.
We like to drink the small can or the small bottle as we want to finish the drink as soon as possible. That is the reason we do not buy the 2 ltr as we don’t feel the taste very good anymore after a while even though stored in refrigerator. It loses the dissolved carbon di-oxide and become a flat drink, no more refreshing!

~~~Advertising and Sponsoring Events~~~~
Advertisement for coca cola and diet coke is always very entertaining and attractive. The jingles like “Always Coca-Cola” and ‘grab a Coke and a smile’ are well remembered. Diet coke is strongly associated to sports and health. The longest standing partner of FIFA (International Football Federation).
Coke demands they have contribution in events like maintaining eco system, mission Antartica, waste and recycling, packaging, litter, and specifically for Britain: reducing energy use, water use and waste and recycling.

~~~~~My Opinion~~~~~
I do think too much drinking of diet coke (any carbonated drink) may cause some health hazards. From time to time many new health hazards from diet coke are published in journals and news which may discourage the customer for the time being but this does not affect the ever increasing market of diet coke. Diet coke is the forth most popular carbonated and non-alcoholic drink in the world right now. I will drink it as long as it will be in the market.
Something which I want to include here is, this year coca cola is celebrating their 25th anniversary and they opened a reward site for Diet Coke, only in USA where consumer can take part in that site, enter the code under the cap of their diet coke bottle, collect points and get rewarded. I wish we, the diet coke fan outside US could get some special opportunity like this!!! I was in US last year when I received a $10 Sony GC from it, kind of a reward for drinking COKE!!!

Well, I had recommended it to potential buyers but request them to check out the advantages and disadvantages before they buy it. 

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