I love everything about Diet Coke. It makes me feel happy. It makes my mouth dance when I drink it, and it fills me with joy!
I love the sounds of fresh ice crackling as I pour Diet Coke into my steel insulated tumbler and that little layer of sweat on a really cold can or bottle is a beautiful thing. But where did my love for Diet Coke come from and when did it start? To find out, we have to go back to my diabetes diagnosis in 1980. I was five years old. As you can imagine, diabetes hit my family hard. But we kept working to figure it out together as life moved on (shout out to my amazing parents). Like most five-year-old kids, I often wanted something nice from the kitchen. That's where it got tricky for mom and dad.
With diabetes, almost anything in the kitchen was complicated. Especially in 1980, the days of exchanges, meal plans, and eating on a schedule dictated by the insulin. But a glass of water? No problem. A can of diet soda? Sure thing. Knock yourself out. So while nearly everything else in the kitchen was either off limits or needed a lot of work and planning as I grew up, a can of diet soda was a rewarding treat with no diabetes-related baggage to worry about.
Enter Diet Coke
It feels like Diet Coke has been around forever. But I have clear memories of drinking Diet Rite and Tab while growing up… So when did Diet Coke hit the scene? August 9, 1982. Which explains two years of messing around with substandard stand-ins. Thank you, Wikipedia. I did not know until just now, that Tab is also a Coca-Cola brand! Whaaat!
The other thing I realized while reading that Wikipedia entry is that Diet Pepsi has been around since 1963, but I can’t remember a single Diet Pepsi in our house growing up. What can I say? Mom must have known how deep my love for Diet Coke would run.
Because I know what's coming
Phil Graham is the bomb. Enjoy!
A special day
Did you know that today, November 19th, is #CarbonatedBeverageWithCaffeineDay? I know, it sounds silly. But I couldn’t let it pass without sharing something about Diet Coke. It’s appropriate, right? So with that, I’d like to know, do you call it “Soda” or “Pop?” And are you in the Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi camp?
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Medical or nutritional information on the mySugr website is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult a physician or health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
