Diet Coke Not Functional Food

Functional foods are growing to be the next big food fad. Adding nutrients or probiotics, or claiming that they have extra nutritional value, makes a regular food "functional."

You know that this will be a huge fad because it is already being abused.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called Diet Coke Plus "misbranded … because the product makes a nutrient content claim but does not meet the criteria to make the claim."

Diet Coke Plus does have nutrients added. In the Atlanta Journal Constitution Joe Guy Collier wrote that:

Its labeling says that each 8-ounce serving provides 15 percent of the daily reference value for niacin, B⁶ and B¹² and 10 percent of the daily reference value for zinc and magnesium.

This is about as meaningful as adding a sprinkle of vitamins to a kid's cereal and then claiming that it's healthy.

Diet sodas are slightly better for you than regular sugared sodas, but mostly are expensive carbonated water. Nobody should have such a ridiculously unhealthful diet that a smidgen of nutrients added to diet soda would make a difference. It's total marketing hype and not worth your dollars.

Be a smart consumer and think about any "healthy" claims that products make. A label plastered across a package touting its wonderfulness isn't always going to be real. If a food really isn't functional, don't bother with it. And don't believe that functional foods will magically make you healthier. Only a good, balanced diet will do that.