$Id: sugar-free-cola-nutrition-facts.malblog,v 1.13 2022/08/23 19:34:50 homer Exp $
| [ | Date | | | 2022-01-31 22:31 -0500 | ] |
| [ | Mod. | | | 2022-08-22 16:32 -0400 | ] |
In Canada, as of 2022, Coke and Pepsi sell four superficially identical products:
My understanding of the reasons why both brands would each have two seemingly identical products is that, traditionally, the “Diet” cola had been marketed to women wanting to control their body weight; limiting the sales to Real Macho Men™. This understanding is based on TV ads from the 1980s and 1990s, and may be incorrect.
| Ingredient | Diet Coke | Coke Zero | Diet Pepsi | Pepsi Zero |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium | 25mg | 20mg | 15mg | 10mg |
| Protein | 0.1g | 0.1g | 0.1g | 0.1g |
| Potassium | 10mg | 40mg | (Ace K) 20mg | (Ace K) 20mg |
| Caffeine | 28mg | 21mg | 22mg | 43mg |
Coca-Cola reports potassium content in the main “nutrition facts” table, whereas Pepsi reports acesulfame potassium contents (“Ace K” above) in the list of ingredients. I can’t tell if Ace K counts as potassium, but I assume the numbers in the table can be compared between brands.
| Name | Caffeine (mg/cup) |
|---|---|
| Napoli | 109 |
| Ristretto Italiano | 75 |
| Roma | 63 |
| Palermo Kazaar | 113 |
| Firenze Arpeggio | 63 |
| mean | 84 |
Various vaguely-reliable search results (checking the first page of results from googling “caffeine in one espresso”) report 50 to 100mg of caffeine per cup of espresso. This is mostly consistent with the table above.
| Beverage | Caffeine content (mg) | Caffeine content |
|---|---|---|
| Diet Coke 222mL | 28 | |
| Coke Zero 222mL | 21 | |
| Diet Pepsi 222mL | 22 | |
| Pepsi Zero 222mL | 43 | |
| espresso cup | 80 |
Assuming a cup of espresso contains 80mg of caffeine, this means that a 222mL can of Diet Coke, Coke Zero, or Diet Pepsi has about a quarter the caffeine of an espresso, while Pepsi Zero has half the caffeine of an espresso. This is significant, and higher amounts than I expected in diet cola.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports the potassium content of a medium banana (118g) as 422mg. Assuming that the Ace K in soda (C₄H₄KNO₄S) counts as potassium, this means that a single banana contains from about 10 to 40 times as much as a small can of sugar-free cola.
| Product | Potassium content (mg) | Potassium content |
|---|---|---|
| Diet Coke (222mL) | 10 | |
| Coke Zero (222mL) | 40 | |
| Diet Pepsi (222mL) | 20 | |
| Pepsi Zero (222mL) | 20 | |
| banana (one) | 422 |
I am told, with a reference from Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition1 that “[the] sweetener is not metabolized by the human body”; “Acesulfame K is not metabolized by the body and is excreted by the kidneys unchanged.” So perhaps this comparison is moot.
Source for the table at the top: a picture I took of four cans. I found this information surprisingly difficult to find online; as far as I can tell, Coca-Cola and Pepsi do not provide all of the information online in a way that is as easily compared as by just reading the labels on 222mL cans.
For some reason, on the list of ingredients for Pepsi Zero Sugar, Pepsi lists not only the caffeine content for that product, but also for another one; Diet Pepsi. The reverse is not true: the label on a can of Diet Pepsi does not list the caffeine content of Pepsi Zero Sugar.
Caballero B, Trugo L, Finglas P. Encyclopedia of food sciences and nutrition: Volumes 1-10. 2003 (2nd ed.)—thanks, Heather B.!↩︎
Quick links:
David Haguenauer
<www@kurokatta.org>
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