It's all in a name when it comes to diet sodas

Whatever happened to diet sodas?

If you're like me (and it's best if you're not), you noticed the slow decline of diet sodas over the past few years.

Sugar-free, no-calorie sodas haven't disappeared. But "diet" sodas are apparently taboo.

Instead, we have "No Sugar" sodas. And "Zero Calorie" sodas. And other variations.

I'm famously a Type 1 diabetic (by "famously," I mean people in my immediate family know it, as do readers bored by occasional articles over the years when I've poked fun at my disease and asked for it to be named after me). That means if I drink sodas, they're of the no-sugar variety.

For most of my life, "diet" was the only word used to describe no-sugar drinks. Diet Coke. Diet Pepsi. Diet Rite. Diet 7-Up. Even Diet Shasta and Diet Cragmont (the Safeway brand until the 1990s).

But about 15 years ago, alternatives began to pop up, forcing me to read labels so I could understand whether these were replacements for the diet versions or something else. Maybe a fat-free soda? Maybe caffeine free?

The first I saw was Coke Zero. Was it zero calories? Zero carbohydrates? Zero fat? Zero caffeine? Zero Mostel? (Star of "Fiddler on the Roof," who died 45 years ago.)

I read and re-read the label to make sure I wasn't accidentally drinking regular soda.

In the past few years, it came to the point that almost no soda brands call their no-sugar drinks "diet." Apparently, younger people don't like the word diet, so it's better to call something "zero" or "no-sugar" or "zero-sugar" or "carb-NO-hydrates" (the last of those was just invented by me. Food companies are free to use it).

This is significant because, even though Millennials and members of Gen Z don't like the word "diet," they still want low-calorie, no-sugar drinks. Sugar-free drinks make up nearly 30% of carbonated drink sales in the United States, accounting for about $11 billion in sales in 2020.

As a member of the sugar-averse community (another term I just invented), I have something at stake here. I don't mind the name changes and think I look cooler drinking something called "Pepsi Max Zero-Sugar Xtreme," rather than Tab or Fresca, the diet sodas most available when I became a diabetic (both of which were marketed primarily to women who wanted to drop a few pounds).

My only request is that Coke and Pepsi and Royal Crown and Shasta and other soda manufacturers would give me a heads up, so I know which sodas I can drink. It also frees up space in my local grocery store, since it doesn't require me to stand there and read a tiny-print nutritional label.

I'm still very confused about the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar. I still don't know if Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar are different. But I do appreciate that soda companies continue to try new things. Some new drinks, many new names.

Those of us in the sugar-averse community stand ready for a carb-NO-hydrate drink.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.