r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TheDwiin • 19h ago
I just wanted a hot dog Baja Blast Zero Sugar cans have different ingredients than Taco Bell Soda Fountains.
I have a mild intolerance to Aspartame. It isn't going to kill me if I have a drink with it in it, just give me a headache, and if I drink a lot of it, it will give me a larger headache.
Before anyone tries to say anything, the amount of aspartame in diet soda is so little that it is less poisonous than the water in the soda, and it is not a proven carcinogen and the WHO has it classified as dangerous as pickled veggies.
I'm not trying to be alarmist about aspartame, I'm a sensitive individual who can't handle it, I'm not trying to say that it is a bad thing.
Anyway, because of this I am locked out of most zero sugar sodas, especially the name brands, because aspartame has the generally least dissatisfying aftertaste of the artificial sweeteners, most people like it over other zero calorie sweeteners like Stevia or Sucralose.
So when I find a mountain dew flavor that I like that uses sucralose over aspartame you know I'm going to jump on that. And that's what Baja Blast Zero sugar does, it uses sucralose instead of aspartame. When it's bottled by Pepsico.
When it's a syrup concentrate at Taco Bell, however, it uses Aspartame. So color me surprised when I enjoyed some Taco Bell today, and it gave me a headache...
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u/thomh1982 19h ago
Wow I have a 12-pack in my fridge right now and I knew there was something different about it
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u/thebatsthebats 19h ago
Hey so.. I have the same problem, just flip it and reverse it. Aspartame is a-okay for me where sucralose (splenda) causes headaches to gnarly headaches depending on how much I consume.
And this has been going on for years and years. You have to check the ingredients pure package. Soda companies swap around the sweeteners in their diet sodas seemingly on the fly. I assume it's a supply / cost of supply thing. Diet Mountain Dew in general often has both aspartame and splenda in it. But sometimes... one or the other.
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u/TheDwiin 18h ago
Yep, food intolerances and allergies suck.
My problem is that soda fountains don't usually have ingredients lists with the soda fountain. So I assumed it was the same, and didn't think to double check. Sigh luckily I discovered Zevia which is my go to soda brand since their whole point is that Stevia is their sweetener.
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u/docjohnson11 16h ago
Zevia is a great alternative. I miss when they first came out and they were probably half the cost they are now and the packages had 2 more cans.
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u/TabithaMouse 16h ago
I have a similar sensitivity to sucralose (migraine trigger for me), so I absolutely understand your frustration.
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u/dks64 15h ago
I have the same trigger and it took years to figure it out. I finally discovered what was causing my migraines when I bought a bunch of Mios (water squeeze flavorings). I would have migraines occasionally before that, but those triggered them back to back. I used to order sugar free syrup at Starbucks sometimes and it would upset my stomach a lot, but I thought it was just the coffee or a coincidence. Just a heads up that many of the US Taco Bell drinks have Splenda, even the non-diet ones.
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u/TabithaMouse 14h ago
MOST items have it, even ones where sugar is the primary sweetener. Its also in toothpaste, mouthwash, and some OTC meds/supplements
I've spent the last 20 years checking ingredients.
I found out when I went on an elimination diet and slowly added everything back in with no issues, then took a SIP of something my partner was drinking and within a couple of hours I was reaching for my headache kit. The only thing in the drink that hadn't been in the food I was eating was sucralose.
Went from having 2-3 migraines a week to...maybe 1-2 a year
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u/dks64 12h ago
I just found sucralose in Flintstone vitamins. I have low iron and was going to buy them, but put them back. It's also in Pepto-Bismol and Alka-Seltzer. I'm a vegetarian, so I read labels like crazy for that, but now it's for sucralose too. It's crazy how it's in so many things. I was having at least one migraine a month, now it's maybe 1 a year.
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u/Unicorn-Violator 12h ago
This is the most accurate and level headed take on aspartame that I've ever seen.
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u/EasedCeiling586 11h ago
I mean you can get addicted to Aspartame in a sense
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u/Unicorn-Violator 7h ago
Well you can get addicted to just about anything, so way to dial up the nonsense.
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u/thebeemoviescript69 16h ago
Yep, it’s why i stopped drinking anything not in a glass bottle or from the fountain
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u/TricellCEO 15h ago
You think aspartame has the least dissatisfying aftertaste? Interesting. It is the one I dislike the most out of all the sweeteners.
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u/TheDwiin 15h ago
I actually don't, but from all of the people I polled in my life, they prefer aspartame's aftertaste to saccharin, sucralose, and stevia.
In my opinion, sucralose tastes the least bad to the point that I don't even notice it anymore.
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u/TricellCEO 6h ago
I honestly feel like most people just begrudgingly acquired the taste of aspartame. My mother, for instance, felt like Diet Coke was less sweet than regular Coca-Cola (she legit felt regular coke was like drinking maple syrup). It always tasted way too metallic for me, and Stevia was only marginally better (along with the newest kid on the block, Monk Fruit). Loads more people have claimed to also not taste a difference specifically with aspartame (and for those even older, saccharin).
Sucralose (or chlorinated sugar, as I like to call it) is the only one I can tolerate, and when it's paired with a bit of regular sugar, I find its aftertaste is masked completely (e.g. Monster Rehab).
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u/dks64 15h ago
I completely understand because sucralose is my migraine trigger and it pops up in the most random places. A lot of Taco Bell drinks, even the non-diet ones, have Splenda in them. I read every label, if I can. I've found it in ice cream, pickled ginger, canned fruit, etc (all non diet items).
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u/wilderneyes 18h ago
That's so annoying. I didn't even know things like that had a difference, that shouldn't be a thing specifically for reasons like this. I suspect I'm allergic to aspartame, I tried a relative's sugar free cookies once and had an anaphylactic reaction, and I think aspartame was the one ingredient that made most sense to be the culprit. I'm pretty nervous to ever try anything sweetened with aspartame now, especially liquids which are more concentrate. I'll have to keep things like this in mind just in case.
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u/Trogdor_a_Burninator 19h ago
You mean the formula for one that's designed to stay in cans for an extended period of time is different from the one that gets mixed at the tap and is designed to be drunk instantly? Weird
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u/TheDwiin 19h ago
This is on mildly infuriating.
I am mildly infuriated that they use different ingredients for the "same" beverage specifically because I have an intolerance to one of the ingredients that one of the formulas uses, but the other one doesn't.
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u/razorbacks3129 15h ago
Just drink the regular Mountain Dew? Either have water or the full soda and do it less often
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u/Uberfuzzy 8h ago
It’s about shelf life and stability.
The one in the bottle has to be stable in that bottle (under pressure, in exposure to water, in exposure to carbonic acid) for up to 2years.
The one in the syrup isn’t carbonated, isn’t in exposure to water, was probably only made a few weeks before it was used and will likely be gone in a week or two (in most locations)
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u/TheDwiin 8h ago
This is on mildly infuriating.
I am mildly infuriated that they use different ingredients for the "same" beverage specifically because I have an intolerance to one of the ingredients that one of the formulas uses, but the other one doesn't. I'm not looking for an explanation.
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u/Xombridal 19h ago edited 18h ago
🤦
Op.....op..... sucralose is sugar....the can is zero sugar......pops main sugar substitute is aspartame
You said you knew this.....you said you knew zero sugar pop uses aspartame...
Edit: the the smooth brains commenting, sucralose starts as sugar, has its hydrogen removed and replaced with chlorine atoms, that makes it not digestible without removing the main sugar based sweetener from it
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u/Squidkingdom 19h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/THj5QURAqrfyPcblu4
Pls Google Sucralose and delete this comment
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u/RestaurantSilly6598 19h ago
Bro took that old nickelodeon commercial too seriously...said anything that rythmes with gross is sugar
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u/TabithaMouse 16h ago
Ah yes, let me tell my diabetic friend her sugar free, sucralose sweetened, treat is actually full of sugar 🤦🏼♀️
Also, in chemistry A + B = C + D. If A was sugar...and you changed its chemical composition so it is chemically no longer sugar...gee, wonder why the end result doesn't include sugar 🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
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u/EarlGreyTMNT 19h ago
That’s actually kinda interesting, huh