Here is a medical reason:

The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Some researchers believes that HFCS turns off the “I’m full signal in the brain”, therefore we eat too much and get fatter or worse yet develop Diabetes.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2007) — Researchers have found new evidence that soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may contribute to the development of diabetes, particularly in children. In a laboratory study of commonly consumed carbonated beverages, the scientists found that drinks containing the syrup had high levels of reactive compounds that have been shown by others to have the potential to trigger cell and tissue damage that could cause the disease, which is at epidemic levels.

Go here for the complete article.

it is a shame. i love these throwback drinks. taste less syrupy. they should expand the line

While I don’t disagree, simply because I am not an expert, (maybe we should ask Cow-Patty) I toss this out to you for thought.

It has only been the past 150 years that people have been able to enjoy preserved vegetables. Until then people either ate what was in season or stable items such as bread products and starchy vegetables that would keep. Late summer was often very lean times for many agricultural families.

Most people had a very bland diet with little variation. The few times they would feast would be for a Harvest Fest type celebration when the peasants would splurge and feast on perishable, expensive foods. After we learned how to preserve foods without salt then these perishable items could be eaten all year, and even better, transported great distances.

Also it wasn’t until the advent of the popularity of the stove that culinary habits changed. Until then almost all foods were stewed in a large pot suspended over a fire or breads that were cooked next to the fire. The stove added boiling, frying, and baking to cooking styles which had a great influence on what foods could be palatable.

So while Native Americans had a narrow diet, at the same time so did most other populations. Although too expansive to go into detail, the Great Irish Potato Famine is one example of little variation in a diet.

As to the difference between Coke and Pepsi, back when both were mainly available in 12 oz. glass bottles, I used to try a little trick where I would firmly clamp a thumb over the opening of the bottle, shake it well, upend it over a glass and let the soda squirt into the glass under pressure. If the pressure fell, I would shake it some more until the pressure built again and allow more soda into the glass. The idea was to see if I could empty the entire bottle of soda, leaving behind a bottle full of nothing but the CO2 (carbon dioxide). This was always much easier with Pepsi, and I could usually work it so that there was even some pressure left in the CO2. With Cokes, there was usually no pressure left and it was harder to empty the whole bottle of soda.

Contrary to ECA’s post #43, CO2 is not a sweetener; it is an acid, or rather it forms one when dissolved in water (carbonic acid H2CO3). This (and the other acids in them) is what gives carbonated beverages their “zing” or “tang.” Also, letting all the CO2 escape will not decrease the fluid volume of the beverage, just as dissolving salt in water won’t increase its volume.

Strange as it is to say, having been born and raised in the Corn Belt, it appears more and more that corn is the enemy. Jared Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs and Steel” (highly recommended by the way) looked at the foods available to human civilizations in the old & new world. It seems the “Indians” had to make do with mostly corn, beans and chilis, plus a few fruits. I’ve talked to several medical professionals who have worked with Native Americans and they have all been amazed at the amount of morbidity in those populations. It’s not very scientific, but I blame the thousands of years of limited diet, largely dependent on corn, for their inability to thrive on the typical Western European diet that became the norm in this country.

So don’t give up your corn-on-the-cob at family dinners or picnics, or cornbread with barbecue or chili, but I do recommend you try to avoid any other manifestation of it, especially HFCS.

First, some sweeteners are good, then bad, now OK. Same thing with eggs.

Guess I’ll stick with plain old soft drinks made from sugar, maybe 2 a week. Who can tell anymore?

Pepsi has a slight cinnamony aftertaste and if you don’t drink it very cold you get an awful clinging texture on the back of your throat.

As weird as it sounds I prefer to dilute the Coke with water, sometimes it comes with a very strong taste. But then again, I live in a country where one of its major exports is sugar cane