The First Diet Soda Came From A Company You've Never Heard Of
Diet soda is an odd part of food and drink culture. To many people, zero-calorie or zero-sugar drinks don't taste better than the original version, and it seems like there's always some media buzz about their ingredients. Why put them on the supermarket shelf? The original purpose of these drinks is sweeter than you think.
Hyman Kirsch was a Russian immigrant who founded Kirsch Bottling Company in Brooklyn, New York. He also served as the vice president for the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Diseases (now known as the Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center). Kirsch had developed recipes for ginger ale and cherry sodas, which at the time were likely made with pure sugar. This chemical compound gives a lot of sodas their signature sweet charm, but it wasn't optimal for diabetic patients who had to avoid sugary foods and beverages.
Kirsch, sympathizing with diabetic patients, decided to develop No-Cal in 1952. It was a new soda recipe with an artificial sweetener so that people could enjoy a non-alcoholic sweet drink without worry. Ginger ale is America's oldest soda, so it makes sense that it was No-Cal's most renowned flavor. But while diet ginger ale and other sodas can help people reduce sugar intake, some artificial sweeteners can actually cause insulin resistance, according to Medical News Today. The impact of No-Cal and its successors remains debatable, but they're nonetheless a fascinating part of American beverage history.
No-Cal paved the way for other diet soda brands
Shortly after No-Cal was invented, Royal Crown Cola's Diet Rite hit the market in 1958 as another soda alternative for people with diabetes. By the 1960s, bottling companies saw an opportunity to expand the market beyond people with diabetes or related conditions. Diet soda's initial success hinged on advertisements for weight loss directed at women.
In 1963, Coca-Cola released a soda called Tab, as in, "keeping a tab on your weight." No-Cal, Diet Rite, and pretty much every other diet soda company had some sort of remark in their advertisements about how their drink would help people achieve a slimmer figure. In the following decades, businesses dropped the "get skinny" schtick and shifted their messaging to make the drink about what it always was: Your average pop without calories or sugar.
This messaging shift likely aided in the dismissal of future accusations of false advertisement for weight loss. Coca-Cola and Pepsi stood the test of time with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi respectively, and they've also found success with zero-sugar products that use different types of artificial sweeteners than the diets. In our diet soda ranking, Dr. Pepper won us over with its taste, but a good beverage is whichever one makes you happy. You do you.