I was walking down Pearl Drive, Ortigas near University of Asia & the Pacific today when I noticed a stand with a name that got me curious:
Sprite ZERO.
The stand offered free taste: a tried and tested PR mechanism that lets people become familiar with a product line – especially effective if it is new.
They even had a cameraman get testimonials from people who got the free taste. I agreed to give my testimonial.
After drinking a cup I asked “So what is the difference between this and Sprite Light?”
“Sir Sprite ZERO has zero sugar and zero calories.”
Funny enough, Sprite Light already did not have sugar or calories. And some of you may even wonder at this: but neither did Coke Light. Check the nutrition labels: 0 sugar, 0 calories – all of them.
So you may ask so why is it that they created the ZERO variants in the first place?
Well, because in people’s heads LIGHT meant that it had “less sugar” especially since in the earyl to mid 90′s where softdrinks just started putting less sugar, and therefore less taste in the Light variants.
But when they started using aspartame (the same stuff in the EQUAL artificial sweetener sachets) of course, they were able to remove all calories without sacrificing the sweet taste of the softdrink. Of course, the taste is very different – but for us dieting people who can complain?
But of course when you say it is ZERO, it sticks in people’s heads that there is literally ZERO sugar in the drink. So the real difference between LIGHT & ZERO?
Marketability. And I am not bashing the soda companies on this – it is a brilliant move actually! I commend them with all my heart and thus I made this post. The fact is we just don’t have a population that bothered to even learn how to read & interpret nutrition labels.
If one thing is Rarely Ordered around food these days, it is educating ourselves about the stuff we eat.
P.S. – All variants of Sprite have an added plus / minus depending on how you take this fact: it doesn’t have caffeine the way Coke has caffeine. So if you are the kind of person who palpitates from caffeine, take Sprite as your softdrink. On the other hand, if you need a “kick” say, you are working / studying take Coke.
Also are you worried about any negative effects artificial sweeteners may have? Go here.
How about caffeine? Go here.
THANKS TO HowStuffWorks.com!
Coming soon – How to read nutrition labels, and what they mean (appendix section) - I got the inspiration to do this from making this post!
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