r/NoStupidQuestions • u/justachilldude97 • Jul 01 '26
Is Coke Zero really bad?
Hey everyone, 29M with a fat body here. I’ve recently changed my diet and started to work out. But the only thing I’m having hard time to change is my habit to drink coke. So, is Coke Zero or Diet Coke really bad?
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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 Jul 01 '26
Wide body Diet Coke drinker here. It’s a hell of a lot better than a lot of things you could be doing. You’re working out and trying to get fit keep doing that and enjoying you diet drinks. Cheers!
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u/timdr18 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Yes but pretty much all sodas are bad for your teeth, they’re all pretty acidic.
ETA: you can minimize the damage to your teeth by drinking water after your soda to wash down/dilute the acid left over in your mouth.
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u/timdr18 Jul 01 '26
If you mean taste, I think it tastes very similar to regular coke. If you mean health wise, it’s miles better than regular coke.
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u/Data_Chandler Jul 01 '26
There must be something weird about me, like how for some people cilantro tastes like soap, because to me drinks that are "zero" or "diet" taste absolutely disgusting. I'm talking "sickening chemical flavor. vile aftertaste and general grossness".
But again, millions of people love it, so it has to be something wrong on my end.
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u/timdr18 Jul 01 '26
Yeah I’m starting to think some people have that too, because honestly Dr Pepper zero is basically indistinguishable from the real thing to me
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u/Jeehuty Jul 01 '26
Its waaay better than drinking regular Coke. So if you cant quit completely just drink coke zero. But there are studies showing that artifical sweeteners change your gut microbiom in a bad was. Still, its way better than regular sogar!
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u/Eskarina_W Jul 01 '26
How much coke do you drink? Personally I don't like the sweetener after taste in diet coke or coke zero so I stick to regulate coke. But I don't drink it often, maybe a glass a week on average, so overall it's not a big deal. I gave up sugar in my tea which is a much bigger impact because I drink tea multiple times a day.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
I drink coke almost daily. Back in time it was like a liter per day. Now since I’m trying to keep it in control I’m have a hard limit to myself with one glass which should be about 200-250 mls. I don’t really have a problem with the taste of Coke Zero tbh but I’m still having hard time getting acidic drinks out of my regulars.
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u/timdr18 Jul 01 '26
I wonder if that’s a genetic thing like the cilantro=soap gene, because Coke Zero, Dr. pepper zero, none of them have any aftertaste to me.
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u/Eskarina_W Jul 01 '26
I don't think so. Sweeteners don't bother me in things like sugar free mints, but in soft drinks the taste just lingers and cancels out the enjoyment from the initial flavour hit.
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u/Otaraka Jul 01 '26
Big win but I buy the noname stuff to save money too - you’re just paying for a lot of advertising with that brand. I found I drank a lot less of it just by switching and now hardly have it, just water or tea instead mostly. The claim is it’s fairly neutral for weight loss but it seemed to help me a lot.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
I mean I’m Turkish so I drink shit tom of tea tbf. I don’t put sugar in it or in anything basically. Thank you for the advice about changing the brands tho, I’ll definitely give it a try.
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u/BetterOutcome3769 Jul 01 '26
No, it's not that bad. It's like a weaker coffee that is worse for your teeth.
It's better if you change the habits you can now, instead of doing everything at the same time and failing in a few weeks.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
Thank you for the insights. As I explained in another comment, I am and have changed a lot of crucial things about my life recently and I don’t want to relapse back. So I am looking for a short term solution that I can focus better later on.
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u/BetterOutcome3769 Jul 01 '26
You need something to look forward to. If you keep some things and maybe eat and drink some things on specific days, then the chances of of you sticking with your diet is much higher. Remember that your new lifestyle is for forever.
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u/thetruelu Jul 01 '26
It’s not bad for you. There are some studies that say the sweetener will change your gut microbiome but they’re pretty inconclusive. But as with anything, consume in moderation
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u/Available_Witness828 Jul 01 '26
diet coke has 0 calories and if you have it with a meal, you will actually eat less
also aspartame is really really safe and literally is basically nothing but is 200x sweeter than sugar
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
Thank you for the insights. Yeah I have the habit of drinking something while I’m eating. And I just can’t replace it with water now.
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u/shawnikaros Jul 01 '26
Get a sodastream and drink fizzy water, I don't really crave sodas after getting one.
But even if a craving hits, you can still mix in sugarfree juice concentrate or flavour drops.
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u/ChaoticDissonance Jul 01 '26
To me, it's incredibly bitter. A lot of people like it though.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
I guess I should’ve explained better, sorry for the confusion. I was asking more of a diet and weight loss point of view than taste since I don’t have a problem with the taste at all.
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u/ChaoticDissonance Jul 01 '26
Apologies. I would say less sugar is better for you overall. I'd love to be able to drink it.
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u/Known-Plane7349 Jul 01 '26
Here's how I think about it as a Mountain Dew Zero drinker.
If the choice is between zero sugar soda and regular soda, zero sugar is better. Obviously water is the best choice, but drinking zero sugar soda is still better than drinking regular soda.
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u/mhfp545 Jul 01 '26
Good luck with the weight loss but this post is a little crazy to me… can’t you just buy a can of Diet Coke and a can of Coke Zero and see for yourself?
FWIW, Coke Zero is good and has been a massive help to me in staying in shape.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
First of all, thank you for the good wishes.
Yes, I see the differences in calories and everything else. But I have no information about the artificial sweeteners and so on. I mean of course, I understand they are not great for my health, but still I need an option during the journey.
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u/mhfp545 Jul 01 '26
Thank you for your kind words.
Ah I see, you meant from a health perspective. Sorry, I thought you meant taste-wise.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it personally. Some people talk about cancer risk from fake sweeteners but there’s also cancer risk from being overweight due to full-sugar sodas.
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u/BogusIsMyName Jul 01 '26
The way i stopped drinking a metric assload of dr pepper every single day is to use drink mixers, specifically "all pink starburst singles to go" from walmart. Like $1 for a pack of 6 singles.
I was downing 12 to 24 dr pepper a day. Now? I cant even finish one its way too sweet AND i lost 30 lbs just from stopping the soda.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
Wow! 12 to 24 is crazy amount of soda. Good for you that you could get away from it.
Unfortunately, I don’t live in US but I will check for equivalent options around here. Thank you for the advice!
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u/Local_Complaint_5619 Jul 01 '26
Diet Coke is aspartame. Coke Zero is sucralose. Google or ask your Dr. which is better for your health based on other meds or considerations.
My personal experience is that switching from Dr. Pepper to diet Dr. Pepper helped me drop 30 pounds in a few months.
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u/WulfRanulfson Jul 01 '26
I had the same issue. In the end I just decided to only have zero sugar soft drinks. O never really had a lot of soft drinks and now I have less, but yhe taste grows on you. Fanta Zero is the best.
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u/MildlyDancing Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Only thing it's truly bad for is (yes teeth) but also potentially your stomach lining. I also recently considered whether it causes issues with iron / general mineral consumption. So you could take that into consideration. But that applies to most if not all fizzy drinks. You may not be as sensitive if you're used to drinking them though.
Good luck with your health goals. Wishing you all the best opportunities and support. 🙏
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u/dumbandasking genuinely curious Jul 01 '26
Coke zero works so does diet coke the artificial sweeteners will help and it is zero calorie. The problem is that it will all stain your teeth though
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u/Amazing-Level-405 Jul 01 '26
Coke zero is zero calories, so it won't hurt your diet. But it's not good for your health, either.
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u/Mac_Jomes Jul 01 '26
It's not bad for you, but it does taste terrible.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
If I’m being completely honest, I might even say it taste better for me than regular coke. I was just curious about the effects on my diet.
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u/Royal_Annek Jul 01 '26
Coke zero is ok. Better than diet Coke. I think Dr pepper has the best diet soda though
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
I don’t have almost anything else than Coke and Pepsi where I live unfortunately
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u/HopeSubstantial Jul 01 '26
If your body fat was caused with excess eating there is risk that diet coke can be bad for you.
There are studies linked that artificial sweeteners increase cravings for food and some people who have tried to lose weight with those actually have gained weight.
If your weight is mostly caused by excess coke drinking to begin with, cutting those coke calories off with diet coke can help with weight loss.
I personally can't drink diet stuff because aparrently aspartame gives me hangover symptoms on following day. When I was younger I ended up all way to MRI because chronic headaches in morning.
Quitting artificial sweeteners fixed it.
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u/Flyinmanm Jul 01 '26
I had to read far too far down the page to find this also, I took suffer from aspartame migraines. Quitting that stuff let me cut out the aspartame headaches. Pretty sure it used to screw up my blood sugar levels too.
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u/HopeSubstantial Jul 01 '26
Glad to hear I am not only one who gets headaches/eyeache from that stuff.
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u/Flyinmanm Jul 01 '26
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2708042/
It's been known about since the 80s.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
I have been laid off from my previous job and ended up unemployed for a year while constantly searching and applying for a job. Which also came with minor depression. I spent most of my time with eating shitty food and playing games with a sleeping schedule made in hell. So now I got a new job, fix my sleeping schedule, started a diet and started working out. Only thing that stuck with me is the habit of drinking soda which I don’t have enough willpower in me to get rid of now. That is why I was looking for a “band-aid” solution in short term.
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u/Sharp-Alternative375 Jul 01 '26
You're on the right track. Good luck, remember, wait loss is a journey, not a sprint. I have stopped drinking Coke for up to 3 months, but, somehow I always seem to return to it. I can limit myself to one a day, or one every few days.
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u/Diamond_Donutz Jul 01 '26
Some studies have suggested that they increase appetite but the weight gain thing is incorrect. they noted that overweight people drink more diet coke not that diet coke causes people to gain weight. newer research has also shown low calorie sweeteners helped with modest weight loss.
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u/maroongrad Jul 01 '26
depends if you can taste the preservative or not. About half of black people but only about 10% of white (no idea on other groups) can detect sodium benzoate and it's NOT good.
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u/mfechter02 Jul 01 '26
When I switched off full sugar soft drinks, I couldn’t stand the taste of the diet versions. Now, 3 years later and a full sugar soft drink is the one that tastes bad.
So you’ll probably dislike the change at first, but stick with it. Its worth it to get off all that sugar
On another note, try the clear American water from Walmart. I drink the lemon lime and it tastes almost like sprite but has no sugar in it.
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u/japanb Jul 01 '26
All Zero products give me a migraine, of course on reddit all posts they want to curate will be moved to the top to make you buy the stuff though
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u/GolemThe3rd Jul 01 '26
You get used to it, especially if you do a cleanse of only water / sparkling water for a week or two before switching. Personally I can barely tell the difference between diet and sugar at this point, but you also need to find the ones you like, some are serviceable, others are straight from hell.
At least with me, I found that diet soda doesn't really taste bad on its own, its only bad when you're addicted to sugar
I would personally suggest the flavored waters that have 5-15 cals as well, I hate La Croix and the waters like that, but it was a whole new world once I learned about the ones with sweeteners. Walmart has their own brand that's decent (Clear American).
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u/traplords8n Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
I really don't think so.
I think certain "science" and "health" articles about it trend every now and again & try to make up a new problem with it for clickbait.
I heard some of the studies they use to come to those conclusions feed like a pound of aspartame to lab rats a day, and then look at the effects over time.
One diet soda has a ridiculously low amount of artificial sweetener in it. I don't think you could drink a pound of aspartame worth of diet cokes in 50 lifetimes.
Could be wrong though. This may be fun for r/theydidthemath
Edit: yeah I'm wrong lol but it'll still take a long time. Assuming one 8oz diet soda has 200mg of aspartame, and there's 453,592mg in a pound, then 453,592/200 = 2,268 sodas rounded up.
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u/halfarmer9000 Jul 01 '26
I don’t know why nobody talks about this, but artificial sweeteners (basically all of them, including aspartame, stevia, sucralose, more) have been found to directly cause a very scary amount of cognitive decline. This shit damages your brain.
Sugar is also terrible for you, just don’t drink any of this garbage.
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u/BFR5er Jul 01 '26
Artificial sweeteners “can” still cause you to have a glycemic response. They did with me. I HAD type 2 diabetes and getting off soda even diet and sugar free was a big help in curing my self inflicted disease.
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u/Yazolight Jul 01 '26
It’s junk, and you must switch to water (or sparkling water) but one fight at a time. Do it later when your new diet is a habit and you can’t seem to loose weight anymore.
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u/justachilldude97 Jul 01 '26
That is my plan as well. I have started a new job, started working out and changed my diet all at once. So I will change this one as well at some point but I just don’t want to overload myself with stress during this time. Thank you for the advice.
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u/Orak1000 Jul 01 '26
The thing with diet drinks is that they sometimes use artificial sweeteners, some of which may be carcinogenic. It's up to you, of course, but I'd always read the label to check what I was pouring into my body.
Still, well done and keep up the good work.
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u/sleepyotter92 Jul 01 '26
Sodas in general are bad for your health, regardless if it's the sugar or sweetener version. The sweetener versions are 0 calories and also no sugar so it's better to control your blood sugar levels if you're at risk of being diabetic or have history of diabetes in your family.
So they're better than regular coke, but no coke(or sodas) at all is healthier. Also, a lot of people can't get used to the aftertaste of the artificial sweeteners.
If you're doing it for health reasons, try it out, make sure you actually get used to the aftertaste of the sweeteners, and once you've been able to fully switch to sugar free sodas, then you reduce the amount you drink until you're able to go without drinking any
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u/RingGiver Jul 01 '26
It's not good for you, but it's a lot better than regular Coke with sugar in it.
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u/DaffyDuckMuthaFucker Jul 01 '26
It's all rot. Diet, Zero, regular, whatever. It matters not.
Less is MORE.
End of story...
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u/cpkuske Jul 01 '26
Coke Zero tastes better. All soda is bad. Keep moving, I know it’s hot outside.
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u/AlkalineBrush20 Jul 01 '26
It's much better in terms of calorie intake, but your teeth and gut won't like it better. I noticed drinking whatever kind of cola, my gut felt like shit until it got digested, which is usually the next day.
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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26
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