NutritionDoc

While experts debate the role of diet sodas in health, beverage makers are moving full steam ahead with the introduction of a whole new genre of diet soft drinks fortified with vitamins and minerals, but dubbing them "sparkling" beverages for more cachet.

 

The latest entry is Diet Coke Plus, a "sparkling calorie free beverage," which is essentially Diet Coke with vit. B6, B12 and niacin and the minerals zinc and magnesium thrown in. The only other difference is a mix of aspartame and acesultame-K as sweeteners versus just aspartame in Diet Coke.

 

CocaCola's archrival, Pepsi, is not far behind. The company is expected to introduce a new zero calorie beverage called Tava sometime soon. A "sparling fruit drink" Tava is not a cola, but comes in Caribbean style fruit flavors. Their web site says it is calorie free and caffeine free, fortified with vit. B, C and E plus chromium.

 

So, if you drink diet sodas, should you opt for Coke or Pepsi's nutrient fortified versions?  While there is nothing inherently harmful about the amounts of the nutrients added to these sodas, there is nothing redeeming about them either. Adding nutrients to a beverage of zero nutritional merit will not make up for a poor diet. Nutrients work best in foods, where they are needed to help process protein, carbohydrates and fats as well as provide needed vitamins and minerals plus the bonus of phytonutrients.

 

Multivitammins have a place because they provide a balanced array of nutrients. In contrast, these beverages hawk a handful of trendy nutrients with little logic to the overall picture.

 

To me this smacks of opportunism. The number of overweight Americans is at an all time high. Yet intakes of several nutrients are suboptimal. Soft drink makers, suffering from decling sales, have come up with the "perfect" solution - fortified diet drinks for nutrient-depleted, overweight Americans.

 

In my view, this new genre of drinks is yet another unfortunate way to replace nutritious natural whole foods with a poor artificial substitute.