I agree with everything except for this in the context of this article.
A can of coke is about 8 teaspoons, which is closer to 150 calories. That number is higher for other sodas like Mountain Dew or larger bottle of soda.
Depending on your habits this may be a rounding error in a given week/month or a significant part of your calorie consumption.
I don't really think of soda as being a serious component of someone's diet. I mean, it's totally optional, just drink water lol.
The main issue with sweeteners it seems is that people use them to justify eating/drinking non-foods. I wonder if the same effect comes up when people have like, roast chicken with a sweetened sauce rather than honey or equivalent.
It's the same thing with beer, which is roughly the same calorie count as a soda of equivalent size. Folks switching from a 'regular' beer to light beer or (even better) liquor can easily drop weight due to the difference in calories between the two.
A pound of fat is ~3500 calories, so gaining 1 pound only requires you to eat (or, rather drink) ~24 sodas or beers over your maintenance rate of energy consumption.
When I mean that it's not a serious component of someone's diet, I don't mean that it's not significant.
I mean that if you're drinking soda anything more than occasionally, you're probably not actually trying to lose weight, you're just enjoying life.
Although, I will say that many MANY people have extremely poor education in terms of dieting... so there may not be the knowledge there.
You might be able to get away with drinking a ton of Coke if you're bulking and lifting in the gym or you're an avid cyclist, but for your average office jockey trying to get 2000-2500 calories in, if you get 500+ from soda you're really limiting what you can eat to meet your protein, fat, micronutrient needs.