Diet soft drink
type of sugar-free or artificially sweetened soda
Diet soft drinks (also known as sugar-free, zero-calorie, low-calorie or zero-sugar soda, pop, or soft drinks) are soft drinks which contain little or no sugar and/or calories. First introduced onto the market in 1949, diet sodas are typically marketed for those with diabetes or who wish to reduce their sugar or caloric intake.
History
Though artificial sweeteners had been known since the discovery of saccharin in 1878, the diet beverage era began in earnest with the 1949 launch of La Casera (also known as Gaseosa) in Madrid, Spain using cyclamate. The product, which belongs now to Suntory Beverage and Food Europe (SBFE), is still on the market. This was followed by the development of No-Cal ginger ale in 1952. Hyman and Morris Kirsch of Kirsch Beverages (Brooklyn, New York) formulated No-Cal for diabetic and otherwise sugar-restricted hospital patients, also using cyclamate calcium to replace the sugar. Recognizing Americans' growing desire for weight loss, Kirsch began marketing No-Cal to the general public, particularly to women. By 1953, the drink had become popular in New York City and the surrounding region. Canada Dry followed with Canada Dry Glamor in 1954.
In 1958, Royal Crown Cola introduced their own cyclamate and saccharin sweetened dietetic beverage, Diet Rite.
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This entry incorporates text from “Diet soft drink” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.