lifestyle

Cola wars return as Pepsi MAX takes on Coke Zero

46 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

46 Comments
Login to comment

Both a junk. Drink water instead.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So aspartame is considered a "healthy" alternative?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cola=crap!

Go Mtn Dew!!!!!!! And not the Japanese version!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If you are thirsty buy a real al beer, it doesn`t have all them aretificial things that are bad for you. Coke and Pepsi tastes like Andrews liver salts to me.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Since Pepsi took the lemon juice out of Pepsi Nex, it tastes just like Coke Zero.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

mmmm, Aspartame... sweet poison.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Pepsi Nex is a tasty alternative to regular Pepsi, but fake sugar is creepy stuff.

If you're thirsty, don't drink a beer (alcohol dehydrates you) or cola (also dehydrating). If you're thirsty, drink something else. Water or a sports drink or juice or SOMETHING.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

All that money spent on advertising something that most people don't care which they drink (and many couldn't tell the difference between). Order a Pepsi at some fast-food slop joint and be told they only have Coke. What do you do? Switch fast-food joint or your drink order?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I hate diet drinks...tastes like crap.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Juice is healthier in that it has vitamins and nutrition, but it's still a sweet sugary drink. Aspartame, despite the urban legends perpetuated on the internet, is perfectly safe with tons of science to back that up.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I generally dislike Pepsi one-off flavors, but I loved Pepsi Baobab. Of course, like Calpis Premium Strawberry, the minute I discovered it, they took it off the shelves.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Pepsi has(d) some great brands in the UK. Pepsi Cino (Coffee) was my fav, but they stopped that.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

http://www.infowars.com/aspartame-study-67-of-female-rats-developed-visible-tumors/

The US Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for the human consumption of 50 mg of aspartame per kg of body weight per day, which is equivalent to a 150-lb person drinking about 20 12-oz. cans of diet soda. My male rats received about 34 mg/kg of aspartame per day, which is equivalent to a 150-lb. (68-kg) human male drinking about 13 12-oz. cans or 2.25 two-liter bottles of diet soda a day. My females received about 45 mg/kg per day, which is equivalent to a 120-lb. (55-kg) human female drinking about 14 12-oz. cans or 2.4 two-liter bottles of diet soda a day.

FDA laws state that the ADI for any food additive should be one hundred times less than the lowest amount found to cause adverse health effects.

2 If my results are considered valid, then the ADI for aspartame should be the equivalent of less than 1/8 can of diet soda per day. However, if the tumor rate observed in my study is considered valid, then aspartame should be removed from the marketplace altogether. According to the pro-aspartame authors of The Clinical Evaluation of a Food Additive: Assessment of Aspartame , “

If the additive is found to cause cancer in either animals or humans at any dose, it is banned from use as a food additive, as a result of the Delaney Anticancer Clause of 1958.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Coke Zero tastes slightly off but the new one which has neither calories nor caffeine tastes just fine. Don't be off put but internet rumour- mongering, a tasty drink by any other name is just as sweet.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Should've also added, I hope they re-release the Cucmber one. I never got to try it :(

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Aspartame, despite the urban legends perpetuated on the internet, is perfectly safe with tons of science to back that up.

If you trust the 'science' that claims its safe, good luck to you. But please don't drink it if you're pregnant. Its not worth the risk.

Personally, I'd take my chances with a natural product over a highly controversial man-made chemical thats only purpose is to make people money. But thats just me.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

nisegaijin, that's a nice small study from a "citizen scientist" who was obviously already heavily invested in the myth before beginning the experiment. I especially liked where a family member praises the study as "very convincing," in a note in the study itself.

Coke and Pepsi are on solid ground saying their drinks are safe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cola drinks are great. They sweeten it so you feel like it's refreshing, then they salt it to make you feel thirsty and drink more.

Stay away from HFCS (even if it was invented in Japan). It just ain't got anything good going for it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Always thought diet drinks tasted a little weird so I stick to good old Coca-Cola and Pepsi with a slight preference for the latter.

Go Mtn Dew!!!!!!!

For reasons unknown even a sip of the stuff makes me vomit. I don't have a problem with the taste or the amount of sugar, it just doesn't agree with me.

Order a Pepsi at some fast-food slop joint and be told they only have Coke. What do you do?

Fly into an irrational tangent resulting in the full mobilization of the National Guard or SDF of course. What other option is there?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So he openly lies his buttocks off just to achieve ... what? Nobody tries to prove that orange juice or club soda are hazardous, but they are similar large brand consumer goods, so there must be a reason to pick on diet coke. Personally, I would trust a home scientist more, than a bunch of beurocats hired from large manufacturer going through revolving doors of FDA to prove that money driven substance is safe.

This is how corrupt this whole approval process was: In 1981, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes, ignored the negative ruling and approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories Donald Rumsfeld said that he would "call in his markers" to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagan's transition team and a day after taking office appointed Hayes. No FDA Commissioner in the previous sixteen years had allowed aspartame on the market.

http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive15.htm

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“This can only help both companies and both products.”

Sort of like this article? How can you talk about the switch to healthier drinks and not talk about the crap they put in these?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

no hamburger, cheeseburger!

no Coke, Pepsi!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Coke Zero tastes like toxic chemical waste. I imagine that Pepsi whatever will have a smiliar chemical tast to get that low cal, sugar free bench mark.

What would be really nice is a normal, sugar ladden Coke or Pepsi without caffein. One that tastes like unhealthy junk drink. Afterall why bother with this kind of soft drink if you are worried too much about health?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'm just saying there's bad science out there, with this particular enthusiast setting up a science fair experiment that gives the desired results. It's not lying, it just bad science.

It's a classic conspiracy theory. Evidence supporting the theory is accepted regardless of quality, and evidence countering the conspiracy is rejected regardless of quality. Orange juice doesn't get a conspiracy theory because it's not artificial and not tied to a particular brand or company like Pepsi or Coke. Aspartame brings up ideas of big bad companies in a greedy cola war, so aspartame must be equally bad, the thinking goes.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Great for cleaning brass! Seriously!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Only 90 countries have tested aspartame and found nothing wrong; the FDA says it's "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved" and found nothing wrong. So Pepsi/Coke must be paying big bucks to thousands of research groups and hundreds of thousands of researchers to keep "the truth" quiet. You'd think it would cheaper just to use sugar (a natural substance).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Aspartame? I just try to stay away from anything needs FDA approval. I got nothing against sugar really. Its the caffeine I could do without. But coke and pepsi always give me the choice of aspartame or caffeine. Which is why I drink Dad's Root Beer. I am sure I will find something wrong with that too, but my choices in Japan are limited.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

they both taste terrible, so doesnt that cancel each other out?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If you want to know the dangers of aspartame, asesalfame K, etc, go to mercola.com. He is an MD and rips the heck out these dangerous chemicals.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I've been a Diet Pepsi drinker since they came out with their Nutrasweet formulation (30 years, for those who are counting), but I will say Coke Zero comes a hell of a lot closer to the original taste of Coke than their "Diet Coke" does.

And to all those aspertame-haters out there - aspertame is only harmful to people with a certain genetic condition: phenylketonuria

Like anything else you can injest, there IS a toxicity level for aspertame, but it is so ridiculously high as to be impossible to reach unless you "mainline" straight aspertame. You would have to have the aspertame equivilent of 55 cans of diet soda in your bloodstream before you would reach toxic levels. Someone trying to reach this level by drinking soda would die of water poisoning first.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

MistWizard, good call, but we do need stuff like aspirin, which does need FDA approval, but yeah, knowing what you eat is a must.

90 countries approved huh? Do you think its that hard to bribe them? Should I mention other things they got wrong by just following the US lead? Banned weed, while keeping tobacco legal for example? It's called bandwagon, my friend. Just because everyone does it, doesn't mean it's right.

Do your research, please. So far there is: majority vs. accurate evidence. Did anyone notice the pattern of argument? Me: Aspartame killed rats. Everyone else: But everyone say's it's ok! Come on people, let's do a bit of thinking! After all, you do put this stuff into your bodies! Don't you even care?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

mmmmmm....PEPSI

0 ( +0 / -0 )

90 countries approved huh? Do you think its that hard to bribe them?

So you're saying that its easier to believe that the cola industry can bribe dozens of countries, thousands of researchers, and several large nonprofit or government food and drug agencies into allowing one particular sweetener on the market than it is to just accept that the stuff isn't really that bad.

majority vs. accurate evidence.

What in deaths name are you basing this on?

Aspartame killed rats.

New Zealand seems to disagree

“Toxicological data is very complex and needs careful interpretation. As in all life sciences false positives and false negatives are a fact of life and expertise is required to properly interpret data from such studies. Over-simplistic interpretations lead to incorrect conclusions. Prime examples are recent Italian studies on rats which claimed to show that aspartame causes cancers. These studies were conducted in a way that could not possibly have provided any information about the toxicity of aspartame – or in fact anything else in the rats’ diet. The animals used were allowed to live until they died naturally, meaning that all the study did was show the results of ageing, which as we all know is a natural process that leads, inevitably, to death."

http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/publications/media-releases/2007/aspartame-activists-3-8-2007.htm

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Do your research, please. So far there is: majority vs. accurate evidence. Did anyone notice the pattern of argument? Me: Aspartame killed rats. Everyone else: But everyone say's it's ok! Come on people, let's do a bit of thinking! After all, you do put this stuff into your bodies! Don't you even care?

Aspertame killed lab rats, huh? Considering that's what they set out to do in the first place, it's not surprising. WHY do they feed it to lab rats? The answer is to determine toxicity levels. HOW do they determine this? The answer is to feed the substance being tested in ever increasing amounts until the mortality rate of the test subjects (e.g. " lab rats") goes above the statistical average. They weren't going to stop increasing the levels until the rats DID die, so your concern is badly misplaced. Take that amount that caused them to start dying and extrapolate up to human sizes and you have your toxicity level for humans.

Newsflash for nisegaijin and any others out there who live in la-la-land...

The following substances WILL KILL YOU if you put enough of it in your body at one time:

"Pure" or distilled water; oxygen; "organic" ANYTHING; Coca-Cola; Pepsi-Cola; and yes, even aspertame.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Fadamor, I will just post it again for you: If simple math doesn't work for you, I don' know what does.

http://www.infowars.com/aspartame-study-67-of-female-rats-developed-visible-tumors/

The US Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows for the human consumption of 50 mg of aspartame per kg of body weight per day, which is equivalent to a 150-lb person drinking about 20 12-oz. cans of diet soda. My male rats received about 34 mg/kg of aspartame per day, which is equivalent to a 150-lb. (68-kg) human male drinking about 13 12-oz. cans or 2.25 two-liter bottles of diet soda a day. My females received about 45 mg/kg per day, which is equivalent to a 120-lb. (55-kg) human female drinking about 14 12-oz. cans or 2.4 two-liter bottles of diet soda a day.

FDA laws state that the ADI for any food additive should be one hundred times less than the lowest amount found to cause adverse health effects.

2 If my results are considered valid, then the ADI for aspartame should be the equivalent of less than 1/8 can of diet soda per day. However, if the tumor rate observed in my study is considered valid, then aspartame should be removed from the marketplace altogether. According to the pro-aspartame authors of The Clinical Evaluation of a Food Additive: Assessment of Aspartame , “

If the additive is found to cause cancer in either animals or humans at any dose, it is banned from use as a food additive, as a result of the Delaney Anticancer Clause of 1958.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You shouldn't trust those numbers, nisegaijin. That amateur scientist doesn't provide his methodology, such has how he accurately measured just how much each rat drank. Another serious problem is that his study ran for 2-1/2 years, which is the lifespan of rats anyway. He admits at one point that he guessed had how long the experiment was. Maybe we could get more of his data and methodology if we bought his e-book though.

He's also a poor lawyer, since the Delaney Clause didn't say "at any dose," and the clause and it's application, which was originally for pesticides, has changed a lot since 1958.

But that doesn't matter. He says what you want to hear, so you trust him.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

taste wise, pepsi max is better imo. but once in a while on a hot day nothing beats an icy cold cola.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Airion: He says what you want to hear, so you trust him.

Trust me, he doesn't. I loved the taste of diet dr pepper or coke zero, but numerous researches against aspertame, and all corruption around approval process made me think about it. I figured: better safe than sorry and price of removing diet coke isn't too much to pay. I enjoy my fruit juices and occasional ginger ale a lot more.. and if i want caffeine, i just go for a coffee...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

benhur: the 'but' in that sentence didn't really make sense.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The real answer as to which is better, Coke or Pepsi: Neither!..... Unless you count Coca-Cola from Mexico or Kosher Coca-Cola from the US (sold in some areas during Passover); real sugar as sweetner vs. HFCS. I've tried both, and the real sugar Coca Cola just tastes better IMHO.

In the US, Pepsi was offering "Throwback" Pepsi and Mountain Dew last year....they were incredible. One bottler from Texas offers sugar-sweetened Dr. Pepper; haven't had it, but would definitely like to try it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Any additives/preservatives are bad for you, bottom line. So is anything processed like white sugar, flour, and even white rice (compared to brown rice, at any rate). I don't think there is such a thing as a soft-drink that's good for your body. Even a lot of the bottled water these days contains salt and other chemicals, and even then you can't really trust the labels show what is 100% included in the product. So, pick your poison, as the saying goes, be it Coca-Cola, Coke Zero, Coke Zero Free, or the upcoming Diet Coca-Cola Zero Free Lite (no doubt).

I'm just looking forward to laughing at what kind of ridiculous flavour they decide to come up with this season. Wasn't last year Azuki Bean and the year before Cucumber?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

^^^There was a baobab earlier this year. it was actually quite not bad :-D

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The FDA had initially banned aspartame, but Donald Rumsfeld (CEO of aspartame's patent holder at the time) somehow found a way to change their decision.

I wonder how Michael J Fox would be doing today if he had never started drinking this poison.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Natural sugar is nasty, nasty stuff, responsible for a host of very serious health problems, from diabetes to obesity to hyper activity in children. Yet there still hasn't been a documented case of artificial sweeteners causing serious health problems in humans, that's after billions of gallons of diet drinks being consumed. I'll go for the sweetners every time.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wish one of them would focus on making a zero-calorie drink that tastes sweet, just like the originals! Other drinks have done it (calpis zero tastes almost exactly like the original, none of that weird aftertaste), so why not pepsi and coke?

If either of them made a zero-calorie cola drink that tasted exactly like the originals (or even sweeter), then they would dominate the market, I am certain! As someone who watches calories, when I crave coke (often), I usually abstain. Once in a while I'll drink the zero brands, but they are not really good, so I would never drink them on a regular basis. But if zero brands tasted sweet like the originals, you couldn't keep them away from me!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I am yet to taste any artificial sweetener that actually tastes sweet. Unless you are consuming two or three liters of this stuff every day there is absolutely no reason why you should even bother with the artificially sweetened rubbish. Two or three cans of Coke/Pepsi a week is not going to turn you into an obese monster. Get over it people! - To me, artificially sweetened soft drinks are like just like no-alcohol beer. There is no point to it at all! Just drink water and be done with it!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites