A Coca Cola Comparison: Regular Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero

So, what’s the actual difference between Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero? Before I decided to have a root around on the Coca Cola site (http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/) and find out the answer by inspecting the ingredients, I took a moment to consider what I believed the answer to be, simply from what people have told me and the messages I’ve received from the media and advertising.

This is what I believed to be true. Regular Coke is full of sugar, is bad for your teeth, and is not a great substance to drink if you have diabetes. Diet Coke is a none-sugar version of Coke, it’s aimed largely at a female audience because of the ‘nil’ calorie content, and that Karl Lagerfeld famously drank it to lose weight for the catwalk. Coke Zero is also a none-sugar version of Coke but it can only be consumed by men with masses of testosterone looking for an adrenaline fuelled rush. Well I can report that I have inspected the ingredients free of media brainwashing, and I was in for a surprise…

• Regular Coke has 10.6g sugar per 100ml. Three cans of the stuff has 105g sugar, the exact equivalent to one 500ml tub of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, although I can’t see myself downing cans of Coke after a breakup.

• Diet Coke will not give you a menstrual cycle, funnily enough, and can be drank by men – really. A male repelling force field does not automatically appear when a man picks up a can. In fact, Diet Coke is almost identical in ingredients to Coke Zero.

• Coke Zero has one difference to Diet Coke – it contains the acidity regulator E331, which is used as an aroma compound. That’s all. No adrenaline fuelled rushes and helicopters involved, just an acidity regulator that somehow warrants a black can label and male marketing.

The one thing regular Coke does not have in comparison to Diet and Zero, however, is the addition of dangerous chemicals known as aspartame and acesulfame-K, which are supposedly 200 times sweeter than sugar, but have been known to cause brain tumours and allergic reactions. It’s fascinating how the FDA (American Food and Drug Administration) can so easily approve these products despite the evidence against them.

Anyway, so we have concluded that Coca Cola has some pretty powerful marketing guys behind the scenes, and that there are no healthy options when choosing a Coke drink. I feel it’s better to be aware of the health risks and have the option to acknowledge or ignore them, than to be completely oblivious and brainwashed by advertisements in the first place.

You can check out where my weird assumptions about the different types of Coca Cola originated from with these TV advertisements on Youtube: