For the first time

Diet Coke was introduced some time around 1980.  I could look it up, but I remember my first taste.  My friend Judy gave me some and I liked it from that very first sip.  I couldn't even tell you how much of it I've drunk over the years--whole barrels, I'm sure. 

Well, today, at lunch, something I never thought would happen, happened.  It tasted funny.  Now, this has actually happened before , but only in Germany, where they make "Coke Light", as it's called there, with saccherine, not aspartame.  On one of my trips to Germany, I bought one, might even have scard up some ice somehow, and prepared to enjoy that first hit--as with all drugs, nothing like the first hit--and was mightily disappointed.  Ick, in fact.  So, for the balance of that trip, and all subsuquent trips to Germany, I rely on coffee for caffeine and mineral water, or beer (it is, after all, Germany) for fizz. 

But today threw me for a loop.  I can only chalk it up to the fact that I've been eating cleaner lately.  Not so much stuff with additives.  I'm the very furthest thing from an apostle, but essentially, if I don't know what's gone into it, I'm not much on eating it. 

I'm finishing the glass.  It's not that bad.  But honestly, until this very day, I never knew what people were talking about when they referred to "the aftertaste".  I couldn't taste it.  So, it's Poland Spring carbonated mineral water, or Gerolsteiner if I feel like going that route, or iced tea, I suppose.  That's sort of too bad.  I used to like real Coke, but I don't any more and now apparently, I don't like Diet Coke.

Now, let me just add here:  I never subscribed, and I never will, to the concept that aspartame is killing us all, that it's all a giant cover-up by the government, and of all the things said about it, the thing I believe the least is that it turns to formaldehyde in your body.  It has also never increased my desire for sweets, because I still am not a sweets girl.  (Bag of Doritos.  Candy Bar.  Oh, bag of Doritos, every time!)  Contributes to metabolic syndrome?  Maybe. 

In the end, however, the reason I don't drink it here will be the same reason I don't drink it in Germany:  I don't like the taste.  And....largely....I feel like that should be the main reason for condemning any foodstuff (except maybe bacon fat, which is just disgusting).  If you like it, have it in moderation. If you don't, then don't. 

Simple, right?