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Comment by lr4444lr | Hacker News Reader

It frankly just tastes weird. I can't understand why people want to eat it. Americans need to retrain their palette to not need a sweet deluge every day, and just enjoy heavy sugar items as an occasional treat.

And I say this as someone who cooks with MSG daily.

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If you spend some time to lower your sugar intake, heavy sugar items will taste too sweet. The problem is all American foods contain sugar, so you have to actively seek out products without it.

Yes this has all been said many times.

Cue Big Sugar

When dieting, my family and I are restricting all kinds of stuff we eat, and drinking pretty much only water. On a diet we get really bored, and things like Diet Coke are extremely tempting. Not only does the bottle say it’s zero calories, but it also has caffeine and tastes so much more interesting than normal low-cal diet food or water. This is the appeal for us, we’re always trying to consume fewer calories and are looking for a way to have something that tastes less boring.

I switched to using a sodastream for getting my soda fix after being addicted to Diet Coke for years. I find it doesn't have the same effect on my appetite that DC and aspartame does.

I find that carbonated water drinks really scratch that itch for me.

Plain carbonated water with ice and maybe a few drops of lemon or lime juice is "interesting" enough for me.

Agreed. I got a sodastream initially because my addiction to Diet Coke was becoming rather expensive with 2022 prices, and I grew bored of the syrups very quickly and just started drinking fizzy water. Now I almost never bother with soda or flavors at all, aside from as an occasional treat when eating out.

Also the unsweetened caffeinated drinks taste worse than aspartame

Black coffee and tea don’t taste worse than aspartame

I meant soda drinks

When I still consumed sugary drinks I also found the artifically sweetened ones to taste "boring", but after switching I really don't notice it at at all. Once you become used to it it quickly becomes the new norm and you don't miss it.

Also the taste can vary wildly between sodas, for example coke zero tastes completely different than pepsi max. Both are sweetened with aspartam.

This is so much an acquired taste, people just are not patient enough.

I stopped eating dairy due to allergy when I was 20. And since, I've drank only vegetal "milk" substitutes. Of course by now (I'm 40) they all taste OK and I love my shakes. But if someone who drinks cows milk tries it, it tastes plantly and nothing like a milkshake.

Same thing happens with sweeteners. I stopped using redined sugar to sweeten my morning green tea. I use stevia leaves instead. It doesn't taste "better" or "worse" to me, it just tastes good and I know I dont need to worry. But my wife can taste the stevia flavour. She is just not used to it.

On the flipside, everytime I get into a Starbucks the smell of "cow" (as i jokingly label it) is very strong for me.

People who are quick to dismiss other flavours just havent had the necessity of adapting.

And sometimes the Diet Version can dates better than the regular one.

I love Diet Dr. Pepper - not so big on regular Dr. Pepper.

Coke Zero has that boring flavor for me. It’s not bad, but doesn’t stand out in flavor. Diet Coke has a different taste to it slightly more artificial but more like soda.

Is MSG shown to be bad? Drink nothing but water, breath nothing but air, and don't eat any food with an ingredient list unless you assembled it yourself.

The history of the bad rap for MSG largely comes from racism (yay!) and then “studies” used to support this and to paint immigrant-run restaurants in a bad light.

Like almost any substance, a lot of MSG isn’t good for anyone. In the amounts typical for cooking, it’s fine.

No, MSG is fine.

The "MSG bad" crowd is so localized, Nongshim makes a special version of their Shin Ramyun with no MSG for the US and another one for everywhere else. Your guess which one tastes better.

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