I feel like I've been deceived. Compared to most families, we are not really soda people. But every once in a while we like to sip on one.
Today, while browsing through Wal Mart in Shelby, I was looking at some sodas and these caught my eye. They were a $1.18 for a six pack. Being the spend-conscious shopper, I am, I asked Harrison if he thought he might like to try one. Obviously they are some generic brand since there is really no "brand name" attached.
Basic cola.
Basic lemon lime.
Harrison was cool with trying it. In his words, "I don't care. A soda is a soda." Being an RC girl, myself, I disagreed with him on that. But ok, I bought 'em. Twenty-four cans of soda for less than $5.00. Not bad.
We get home, put the groceries away, and fix lunch. Harrison wanted a soda with his lunch, so, "Yeah, open one up and tell me what ya think." The look on his face after that first sip told me it must not have been that great. He chose the basic lemon lime. I opened a can of the basic cola and after my first sip I thought it tasted like a DIET cola.
First of all, I don't do DIET. NOTHING with any artificial sweeteners comes into this house. We used to allow it, yes. But after a lot of reading up on the "sweet poison" we decided we did not want our children consuming it. Aspartame, especially. Which is what is used in most all diet drinks, including soda.
And I know what you're thinking... They won't allow artificial sweeteners, but they'll allow pure soda. Yep! We don't allow them to drink it all the time. It's more of a treat than anything.
So when I realized it tasted diet, I looked at the Nutrition Facts and guess what....35 calories for the cola and 30 calories for the lemon lime.
SAY WHAAAA????
I've been journaling my calories for about a month now. So when I saw the calories in these cans I went straight to the ingredients. In my cola I found:
*Carbonated water
*High fructose corn syrup
*Caramel color
*Phosphoric acid,
*Potassium citrate,
*Potassium Benzoate (A preservative)
*Aspartame <--------------------RIGHT THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!
*...and a few other ingredients....
Now I'm just mad. Why couldn't they stamp the word "diet" on these drinks? I can't even think of a reason they would not do that for the consumer.
I guess there's no law stating they have to. But they should. I felt it was very deceitful. We opened two cans today, but tomorrow, the rest will be going back to the store for a full refund. We won't drink them and I'm not giving them to someone else to drink.
So if you're in Wal Mart, or any other store selling these generic looking drinks, be aware that they are not what they appear to be. They're not really regular sodas. They're nasty diet drinks filled with that "sweet poison." And if you're against artificial sweeteners like we are, you won't want these.
They are manufactured by Cott Beverages in Tampa, Florida. I intend on emailing them my blog post. Maybe when I see their product in the store again, there will be that one word added to their cans to let the consumer know they are diet and not the regular sweet soda they intended to purchase.
And thus concludes my rant and expose`.
