So I happened to yet again take a look at the ingredients to Diet Mountain Dew. Why? Because I can't have fructose.
The second ingredient for Diet Mountain Dew is concentrated orange juice. Yet, the nutrition label says that there are no sugars.
o_O
Please help me to understand how this is possible. Did the fructose magically disappear?
If it did, can I borrow the use of Pepsi's magic disappearing fructose fairy? I'd like to be able to enjoy a slice of apple pie.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on November 30, 2006 09:31 AM:
Maybe it's SOOO concentrated the fructose can't escape, making it chemically irrelevant. Sort of like a fructose black hole.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on November 30, 2006 09:45 AM:
Hmmm. According to the FDA, that shouldn't be right.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on November 30, 2006 09:47 AM:
Oh! It occurs to me that even though it is the second ingredient, there may be so little that they don't have to count it, as per that link.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on November 30, 2006 09:47 AM:
(You could write the company and find out.)
Posted by Libbie (Member # 9529) on November 30, 2006 09:49 AM:
KQ: Maybe, but the ingredients are always listed in order of quantity. That's very confusing. I'd think there would be a ton of fructose in concentrated orange juice!
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on November 30, 2006 09:54 AM:
Maaayyybeee ... they're lying!
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on November 30, 2006 10:06 AM:
yeah, kq, that's actually what I'm going to do. I also wonder when they changed the recipe.
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on November 30, 2006 10:10 AM:
Just this year...apparently there is even a petition out for the recipe to be changed back to the original.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on November 30, 2006 10:30 AM:
I say we bring a class action lawsuit against them due to false advertising and posing a potential health risk, especially to those that are allergic to sugar. Then after it's all said and done go home and roll around in the mountain of cash we acquired as a result of such a frivolous lawsuit.
Ain't America great?
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on November 30, 2006 11:43 AM:
I miss Diet Code Red. It was terrible and delicious all at once.
I'm pondering some kind of....orange juice concentrate with no sugar...which in my head, looks like Kool-aid powder.
-pH
Posted by Shmuel (Member # 7586) on November 30, 2006 12:10 PM:
quote:Originally posted by Libbie: KQ: Maybe, but the ingredients are always listed in order of quantity. That's very confusing. I'd think there would be a ton of fructose in concentrated orange juice!
I'm with KQ. The first ingredient is carbonated water. Doesn't take a whole lot to flavor that... and in this case, the OJ is followed by citric acid, natural flavors, citrus pectin, potassium benzoate, aspartame, potassium citrate, caffeine, sodium citrate, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, gum arabic, sodium benzoate, calcium disodium EDTA, brominated vegetable oil, yellow 5. Note that this includes three artificial sweeteners, and that the calorie count still rounds to zero... all of which suggests that the amount of fructose is negligible from a legal standpoint.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on November 30, 2006 01:53 PM:
This is why I stay away from neon greenish-yellowish sodas. Diet or not.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on November 30, 2006 02:06 PM:
Yummy! Better living through chemistry is so awesome!
Posted by just_me (Member # 3302) on November 30, 2006 03:30 PM:
Based on the FDA site it seems like if there is less than .5g of sugar it won't show up. Since I can't easily wrap my head around concentrate OJ I took a look at this in terms of reconstitued OJ - Minute Maid Country Style . According to the nutritional info there is 24g of sugar in 8oz of this OJ. So, if there is .49g of sugars in Diet Mountain Dew it would be about (.49/24) 2% OJ by volume - this seems a little low to me but on the other hand Hawaiian Punch is only 5% juice so I don't think it'd be unreasonable for Diet Mountain Dew to be 2% juice.
So, I think ketchupqueen is right and there is just not enough OJ to make it onto the nutritional information.
quote: Maybe it's SOOO concentrated the fructose can't escape, making it chemically irrelevant. Sort of like a fructose black hole
This is extra funny considering OJ is one of the things you give people with low blood sugar since the natural sugars in OJ help bring the blood sugar up quickly.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on November 30, 2006 07:33 PM:
From the FDA website, something can be labeled sugar if:
quote:"Sugar Free": Less than 0.5 g sugars per reference amount and per labeled serving (or for meals and main dishes, less than 0.5 g per labeled serving)
No ingredient that is a sugar or generally understood to contain sugars except as noted below(*)
* Except if the ingredient listed in the ingredient statement has an asterisk that refers to footnote (e.g., "* adds a trivial amount of fat").
I'm pretty sure that those conditions are "and" not "or", which means something labeled "sugar free" must have both less than 0.5 g of sugar and have no ingredients that are generally understood to contain sugar.
Orange Juice is pretty generally considered to contain sugar so unless it has an asterisk next to it and a footnote that explains how a drink containing orange Juice can have no sugar, Diet Mountain Dew is not meeting the FDA regulation even if it has only 5 mg of sugar.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on November 30, 2006 09:28 PM:
Yes, but the label does not say "Sugar Free"; it simply shows 0 for the amount of sugars. Pretty sure in that case only the first requirement would apply.
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on November 30, 2006 09:33 PM:
Yummy! Better living through chemistry is so awesome!
Yeah, me loves me some brominated vegatable oil.
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on November 30, 2006 11:52 PM:
quote:Originally posted by rivka: Yes, but the label does not say "Sugar Free"; it simply shows 0 for the amount of sugars. Pretty sure in that case only the first requirement would apply.
Question is, are they rounding up or down? If they're rounding down, it could have 0.999999mg of sugar and still be able to be labeled as 0.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on December 01, 2006 12:05 AM:
But not 0.9999999...
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on December 01, 2006 12:35 AM:
*giggles at Ic*
Goody, by law they can only put 0 if it contains less than .5 g (as Rabbit cited above).
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on December 01, 2006 10:55 AM:
I still want to borrow their magic disappearing fructose fairy.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on December 01, 2006 10:56 AM:
It's like homeopathy. Dilute it with enough water, and it disappears.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on December 01, 2006 10:58 AM:
If there is such a small bit of fructose in it, I'd think it would be unlikely to harm you. It's the other garbage in it that you need to worry about.
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)