Diet cola

Listed nutrients, per 100 g

For each nutrient, the value this page uses is marked “used”. A row marked “second database” is another database’s figure for a matching food, kept so you can see how far databases disagree (they can differ in the samples analysed, lab methods and rounding). Its own cells are worked out from it, but none of the page’s words or scores are.

Change the amount to rescale the first column. Nutrients a database doesn't list are missing, not zero.

Hazard rows as the dataset rates them

• Acesulfame potassium · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2025 re-evaluation set the acceptable daily intake for acesulfame K at 15 mg/kg body weight/day, replacing the earlier 9 mg/kg body weight/day, 1,050 mg a day for 70 kg. Eaten alone, about 13,057 g a day would reach it (about 35 servings; 7,465 g at the strongest product, 140.8 mg/L). One serving carries 30 mg, 2.9% of it. EFSA's mean exposure runs from 0.04 mg/kg body weight/day in adolescents to 5.2 in toddlers; at the 95th percentile, from 0.2 in children 3-9 and adults to 15.7 in toddlers, so a toddler at the 95th percentile exceeds the limit. · Castellanos 2025 · B
• Aluminum · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's tolerable weekly intake for aluminium is 1 mg/kg body weight/week (2008), 70 mg a week for 70 kg. Eaten alone, about 715,916 g a week would reach it. A serving a day comes to 0.26 mg a week, 0.37% of it, and adds 0.2-1.8% to the average adult intake of 14-105 mg a week. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• Arsenic, all forms · Context · Total arsenic, not inorganic: Not rated (EFSA's inorganic-arsenic benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL05) needs the inorganic fraction; none found for cola). Context only. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• Aspartame · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: the acceptable daily intake for aspartame is 40 mg/kg body weight/day (EFSA, JECFA and Health Canada), 2,800 mg a day for 70 kg. Eaten alone, about 8,819 g a day would reach it (about 23 servings; 5,132 g at the strongest product, 546.2 mg/L). One serving carries 119 mg, 4.3% of it. EFSA puts general-population exposure at up to 36 mg/kg body weight/day at the 95th percentile, below the limit. IARC (2023) classed aspartame Group 2B, possibly carcinogenic on limited evidence; that is a classification, not a dose limit. · Castellanos 2025 · B
• Aspartame and phenylketonuria (PKU) · Worth knowing · Flagged for people with phenylketonuria: EFSA says the acceptable daily intake is not applicable to them, and they require total control of dietary phenylalanine. Aspartame is fully broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol, and EFSA's factor from aspartame to phenylalanine is 56%, so one serving's 119 mg of aspartame carries about 67 mg of phenylalanine (Foodtopsy's arithmetic). Health Canada requires a bold statement that aspartame contains phenylalanine. The flag follows the label, not the amount. · EFSA 2013 · B
• Benzene · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: Health Canada's tolerable daily intake for benzene from food and beverages is 0.36 µg/kg body weight/day, 25.2 µg/day for 70 kg. The diet colas it surveyed averaged 0.36 µg/L (0.55 µg/L at the highest product); they were chosen because they contained benzoate, so this is not a market average. Eaten alone, about 70,071 g a day would reach the limit (45,864 g at the highest product). A 375 g serving carries 0.135 µg, 0.54% of it. The serving is compared with the limit on its own. · Health Canada 2007 · A
• Cadmium · Nothing to watch: under the limit · A daily serving adds 0.41% to an average adult's cadmium intake (EFSA 2012 adult median, 1.77 µg/kg body weight/week; Canadian adults in 2007: 1.2-1.75), far from doubling it, so no cap. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• Caffeine · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: average adult intake spans a range, and each end is tested on its own. At the low end a daily serving keeps total intake under the limit; at the high end it adds less than double the average. Average adult caffeine intake from all sources runs from 36.5 to 319.4 mg a day across countries. At the low end of that range one 375 g serving (52.8 mg, 13% of 400 mg) equals 145% of it, but total intake stays under the limit; at the high end it adds 16.5%. Eaten alone, about 2,843 g a day would reach 400 mg. · Health Canada 2025 · B
• Caffeine in pregnancy · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA finds that caffeine up to 200 mg a day from all sources does not raise safety concerns for the fetus. Eaten alone, about 1,421 g a day would reach it. Health Canada's figure for people planning pregnancy, pregnant or breastfeeding is 300 mg a day, which would take 2,132 g. One 375 g serving carries 52.8 mg, 26% of 200 mg. · Health Canada 2025 · B
• Caffeine in one sitting · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA finds that single doses of caffeine up to 200 mg (about 3 mg/kg body weight), from all sources, do not raise safety concerns for healthy adults. Eaten alone, about 1,421 g in one sitting would reach it. One 375 g serving carries 52.8 mg, 26% of 200 mg. · Health Canada 2025 · B
• Caramel colour · Not rated yet · Not rated: no measured colour content per litre was found, and the class of caramel colour in a given cola is not on the label (Canada lists 'caramel'). EFSA (2011) set a group acceptable daily intake of 300 mg/kg body weight/day for caramel colours E 150 a-d, 21,000 mg a day for 70 kg, and 100 mg/kg body weight/day for Class III (E 150 c), 7,000 mg a day. EFSA ties cola-flavoured drinks mostly to Class IV, which falls under the group limit. EFSA also concluded that exposure may exceed the limit for Classes I, III and IV at the 95th and 97.5th percentile, from colours in many foods, not cola alone. · EFSA 2011 · B
• Fluoride · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: the tolerable upper intake level for fluoride in adults is 10 mg/day (Health Canada). One serving carries 224 µg, 2.2% of it. The concentration comes from a compiled food-composition listing, not a Canadian survey. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C
• Lead · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: a serving adds 0.129 µg of lead, 0.37% of the average adult intake of 35 µg/day (EFSA) and 1.8% of Canada's about 7 µg/day, far from doubling it. No safe threshold is set for lead. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• 4-MEI (from caramel colour) · Not rated yet · Not rated: no agency tolerable intake for 4-MEI exists (EFSA 2011: caramel-colour group acceptable daily intake (ADI) 300 / Class III 100 mg/kg body weight/day; for 4-MEI only a mouse no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) of 80 mg/kg body weight/day, judged thresholded; exposure 'not of concern'). Information only: 71.8 µg a serving / 70 kg = 1.03 µg/kg body weight, about 77,981 times below the NOAEL (our arithmetic). Prop 65's 29 µg/day is a regulatory risk level, not an agency tolerable intake. 0.1913 µg/g. · Smith 2015 · B
• Nickel · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: nickel is rated against EFSA's tolerable daily intake of 13 µg/kg body weight/day (2020). The average adult already takes in 22-26% of it, under half, so a food would have to reach the limit on its own to matter. Eaten alone, about 85,439 g a day would reach it (non-detects counted as zero, so the true figure is lower). One serving carries 4.00 µg, 0.44% of the tolerable intake, and adds 1.4-3.1% to the average adult intake of 128-293 µg/day. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · B
• Added phosphates · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's group acceptable daily intake for phosphates (2019) is 40 mg/kg body weight/day expressed as phosphorus, 2,800 mg a day for 70 kg. It covers phosphorus from natural sources and from additives, so the cola's total phosphorus is the right comparison. Eaten alone, about 31,100 g a day would reach it. A 375 g serving carries 33.8 mg phosphorus on the USDA listing, 1.2% of the limit, and adds 2.2% to 3.0% to the average adult intake of 16-22 mg/kg body weight/day; FDA's Total Diet Study measured about the same (86 ppm, 32.3 mg a serving). The limit does not apply to people with moderate to severe reduced kidney function. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C
• Sucralose · Not rated yet · Not rated: the label says some diet colas on the Canadian market contain sucralose but gives no amount, and a label is not a measurement. EFSA's 2026 re-evaluation kept the acceptable daily intake of 15 mg/kg body weight/day, 1,050 mg a day for 70 kg. EFSA's mean exposure runs from 0.1 mg/kg body weight/day to 4.7 in toddlers; at the 95th percentile, from 0.4 to 14.3 in toddlers. · EFSA 2026 · B

Oxalate, phytate and gut-tolerance measurements

• fodmap excess fructose: glucose 0.0, fructose 0.0, sucrose 0.0 g/L in 'Coca Cola Zero Calorie' (zero) g/L · as sold, beverage · Coca Cola Zero Calorie, Japanese market, enzymatic method after invertase · grade B · Ando 2023

Sources

• Ando Y, Ohta Y, Munetsuna E, et al. Laboratory analysis of glucose, fructose, and sucrose contents in Japanese common beverages. Fujita Med J · doi:10.20407/fmj.2022-009 · PMID 37234384
  ando-2023-sugars · full text read · CC BY (Europe PMC licence field, PMC10206900)
• Castellanos M, Sanchez JM. Determination of Artificial Sweeteners in Commercial Beverages: Do We Know What We Are Consuming? J Xenobiot 15(5):164 · doi:10.3390/jox15050164 · PMID 41149750
  castellanos-2025-sweeteners · full text read · CC BY 4.0
• Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File 2026 (14th edition)
  cnf-2026 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of caramel colours (E 150 a,b,c,d) as food additives, EFSA Journal 9(3):2004 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2004
  efsa-2011-caramel · full text read · licence not recorded
• EFSA ANS Panel, Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of aspartame (E 951) as a food additive, EFSA Journal 11(12):3496 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2013.3496
  efsa-2013-aspartame · full text read · licence not recorded
• EFSA FAF Panel, Re-evaluation of sucralose (E 955) as a food additive and evaluation of a new application on extension of use in fine bakery wares, EFSA Journal 24(2):9854 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2026.9854
  efsa-2026-sucralose · full text read · open access (PMC12911467)
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• Health Canada, Follow-up Survey of Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverage Products (2007; Table 1(a), µg/L)
  hc-benzene-survey-2007 · full text read · Government of Canada terms
• Health Canada, Caffeine in Foods (page details 2025-04-02): Table 1 recommended maximum daily intake; Table 2 average caffeine in food and drink
  hc-caffeine-foods-2025 · full text read · Government of Canada terms
• Health Canada, Canadian Total Diet Study – Trace Elements (2005–2018 composites)
  hc-tds-trace-elements · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• Smith TJ, Wolfson JA, Jiao D, et al. Caramel color in soft drinks and exposure to 4-methylimidazole: a quantitative risk assessment. PLoS ONE 10(2):e0118138 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118138 · PMID 25693062
  smith-2015-4mei · full text read · CC BY (Europe PMC licence field, PMC4333292)

Body map 2026-10-25.1: each nutrient’s job comes from an agency fact sheet, linked beside it under Good for.

The plain words: “a lot” means one serving (100 g when the food has no serving size) gives at least 20% of the daily amount (the reference intake), “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2% (the cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source” and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount, whereas Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%; provisional: they may change in a later method version). The daily amount is Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intake for adults 19–30; where men and women need different amounts we use the higher one (protein: 56 g for men, 46 g for women). The percentage printed under each nutrient is the printed amount as a share of that daily amount, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the word is read from that percentage, so the amount, the percentage and the word always agree. Calcium with a measured absorption is scaled by how well it gets in compared with milk.

The scale: “Nothing to watch” means a serving a day stays under the limit at ordinary amounts; “Go easy” means a serving a day can push past the limit for adults who already take in the most, or fewer than 2 servings reach it; “Limit it” means once a week or less. The dataset’s own rating is under “How we got this”. Provisional: the scale may change in a later method version.

Measured absorption under Good for: grade-A studies in adults that tested this preparation of this food, as a share of the listed amount (the share digested, for protein), quoted once each source has passed our evidence check; animal studies and other variants stay in the table above. Provisional: this screen may change in a later method version.