What's the Most Absurd Thing You Learned This Week?

[Kattriella]

Learned from the Coca-Cola vendor at work yesterday: Regular soda (as in full sugar soda) has a shelf life of around 8-12 months from the date of manufacture, but diet and zero sugar drinks only have a shelf life of around 3 months.

That's because aspartame degrades faster than high-fructose corn syrup. It also degrades faster in the heat. It degrades into aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. Aspartic acid is made by your body. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid BUT there are people who can't handle it. There is less methanol in a can of Coke than there is in a similar sized glass of tomato juice.

Science is so cool. You can't convince me that science isn't some form of magic.

[Kirahfaye]

Misty, you are our premier Infonator!

[DollyKim]

With the side effects of Phenylalanine it's no wonder I can't handle anything with artificial sweeteners. The tomato and methanol connection is interesting, explains my pizza and spaghetti comas, and perhaps why I don't really get a caffeine kick from Coca Cola.

[Kattriella]

I feel like in a few more decades, we'll be seeing those "If you or a loved one used . . ." commercials for diet soda, because literally the ONLY good thing I've seen said about them is that they're sugar free.

[Kirahfaye]

I feel like in a few more decades, we'll be seeing those "If you or a loved one used . . ." commercials for diet soda, because literally the ONLY good thing I've seen said about them is that they're sugar free.

Sugar free is only good if there is no other chemicals or substances substituted in it's place. It took me a few years to get my husband off "sugar-free" Coke. Which helped us both get away from most "soft" drinks/sodas (sparkling water is our drink of choice now). I hardly ever even have iced tea unless we go out to dinner.

[Kattriella]

My weakness as far as soda is Dr. Pepper. It's my go-to The rare times I go to restaurants because I know it's a relatively "safe" choice as far as flavors go. (Yay for neurodivergent tendencies.) The only iced tea I drink is what I make at home, and that's because I brew it so strong it looks like black coffee. Otherwise, I drink a LOT of water.

[Tam I am]

Water is goooood. And it amuses the wait staff as they try to keep my glass full.

[Kattriella]

The tap water in my area is questionable at best most of the time. I have a filter at home and it still tastes like chlorine most of the time.

Meanwhile, new thing I've learned: Not only has almond milk been around far longer than most people realize, it was apparently a common staple in medieval cooking. Or at the very least, one of the surviving cookbooks from that time calls for it in quite a few recipes.

[Kattriella]

So I recently learned that the reason the Appalachian Mountains are so flat compared to other mountain ranges is because of their age. They were already well eroded long before the Rocky Mountains formed. They're so old, in fact, that it's believed they date back to Pangea, and the Scottish Highlands were originally part of the same mountain range.

Earth is so freaking cool, man.

[DollyKim]

Look up Myron Cook on Youtube, he's a geology grandpa who uses a combination of modern tech and literally going to the places he can to explain stuff.