Still Drinking Diet Soda? Don’t be a Fashion Victim!

At the just-launched Fashion Week in Manhattan, supermodels won't just be sashaying down runways in mind-boggling frocks. They'll also be accessorized with a new invention from Pepsi Co. -- the "skinny can," pictured at right, which (according to...

February 10, 2011 | Source: Grist | by Tom Phillpot

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At the just-launched Fashion Week in Manhattan, supermodels won’t just be sashaying down runways in mind-boggling frocks. They’ll also be accessorized with a new invention from Pepsi Co. — the “skinny can,” pictured at right, which (according to a press release) will “make its debut” in the cool palms of fashionistas during the twice-a-year blowout at Lincoln Center.

What Pepsi is calling its “taller, sassier” new can, a “celebration of beautiful, confident women,” amounts to new packaging for a very old and familiar product: Diet Pepsi. And just what is this thing called Diet Pepsi? Here’s the official ingredients list:

CARBONATED WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, ASPARTAME, PHOSPHORIC ACID, POTASSIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVES FRESHNESS), CAFFEINE, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVOR

PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE.

In plain English, Diet Pepsi consists of artificially blackened water tarted up with synthetic chemicals. The references to “natural flavor” and (chemical-induced) “freshness” aside, what really gives Diet Pepsi its main flavor — that special jolt of sweetness — is aspartame, the famous calorie-free sugar substitute.