VIRAL Diet Coke Protein Trend EXPLAINED – Worth Trying?

Checking out the viral protein Diet Coke trend. Apparently this new trending nutritional hack is Diet Coke mixed with a bottle of something called Fairlife High Protein Core Power Vanilla Shake. Sounds powerful. Went viral after a TikTok creator named Rebecca Gordon posted a video where protein Diet Coke is currently trending. Let's take a look.

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Wow. Shake it up, shake it up. Suck it up. All right. Okay, here we go. See that? The Diet Coke getting poured into the giant sippy cup. And of course the core, what's it called again? The Core Power Vanilla Shake goes in after that. So what do I think of this? Well, what's it got? We got the Power Core shake. Now for those of you not familiar with Power core, this is one of those pre mixed protein shakes. Got 26 grams of protein. Not bad. Not quite a ribeye steak, but not bad. The ingredients are filtered low fat grade A milk. For my thoughts on low fat dairy, click on the link right here. For a video I recently did on lean protein and full fat versus low fat dairy. You might think it's very interesting. Let's see what else it's got. Monk fruit juice concentrate. Not bad. I love that stuff. Stevia leaf, also not bad. Carrageenan. This is a filler that can upset the guts of a lot of people. But it's, it's not that bad unless you have a princess gut like me. Cellulose gel and cellulose gum fiber based filler. Probably very satiating. And then we've got lactase. Why would you have lactase in a dairy product? Well, a lot of these dairy products, they'll even put lactose free on the front. It's not actually lactose free. It's got milk in there. But when you add the lactase enzyme, this is the same stuff that you can buy in a bottle at CVS or Walgreens or whatever to digest dairy for you. It digests the lactose sugars in dairy causing it to be less phytomatic. For a lot of people who are sensitive to dairy, then vitamin a, palmitate, vitamin D3. So they're putting some fat soluble vitamins in there and that's it. Not the worst ingredient profile on the planet. But then we're adding that to Diet Coke, which is the sweeteners, aspartame or aspartame depending on what area of the world you're from. Acesulfamine potassium or Ace K as we say. Then it's got carbonated water, of course, the base, natural flavors, caffeine, phosphoric Acid, citric acid, sodium benzoate, sodium citrate, dimethyl polysiloxane, which is an anti foaming agent generally recognized as safe. Still a chemical, but I'm not one of those chemicals in your yoga mats or in your subway sandwiches, food babe type of person. And if you can't pronounce it, don't drink it, it's an anti foaming agent. I can think of worse. I have a Diet Coke occasionally. Sue me. We mix all this together. What are my thoughts? Well, besides the part about the lean dairy, the filtered low fat grade A milk that we get in the power core, I want to share with you some of my thoughts on the other chemicals, namely the sugar alternatives. Because you got all three. You got all three. When you mix this, you got ACE K, you have sucralose and you have the, the aspartame or aspartame. So ACE K, let's talk about that one first. There are some studies in humans that suggest that ACE K may alter the composition of the gut microbiome that that could impact your digestive distress lack or presence thereof. ACE K was initially approved by the FDA as safe, but there have been some concerns raised about its breakdown byproducts which might potentially be carcinogenic. But all of that research was done on animals. There's some evidence also that suggests ACE K may affect insulin secretion even though it has no calories. What that means is you taste something sweet, you might get hungry later on because your body got the taste of sweetness and the insulin secretion, but it didn't actually get calories. This is why some people get paradoxically hungry after they'll have artificial sweeteners, appetite and weight gain. Because of that, it does seem that ACE K may have some impact on the brain's reward system and have an appetite stimulating effect. Now I still think the amount of calories you're probably saving by not sucking down pure high fructose corn syrup is a plus on the calorie intake side, but it's something to be aware of. Some people get headaches in response to ACE K. That just depends on your constitution. There are some studies that suggest that some ACE K may accumulate in the kidneys and impact kidney function. If you have pre existing kidney conditions, this might not be the perfect drink for you. But ultimately ACE K, I have it every now and again. There are some concerns with long term consumption of it. So Sucralose, another popular artificial sweetener which you'll find in products like say Splenda. There's Also, research that suggests that that can alter the gut microbiota. It does cause digestive issues in a lot of people. I don't think we know everything there is to know about its impact on the microbiome, but it does give me a little bit of concern. There might be bigger fish to fry, like, I don't know, glyphosate or herbicides and pesticides. But it's something to think about if it's broken down at high temperatures. Like if you bake or cook with it. Don't do that. Don't bake or cook with splash Splenda. You don't need to do that. That potentially forms harmful compounds like chloropropanols, which have been associated with potential carcinogenic effects. So I wouldn't bake with Splenda at room temp. It's not as big of a deal. Some studies indicate sucralose might affect insulin sensitivity, especially in people who are not accustomed to consuming artificial sweeteners. So similar to ACE K, it might paradoxically mess around with your hunger and satiety signals. Limited evidence, but only in animals, suggests sucralose could impact thyroid function. But we haven't seen those studies in humans. So that's ACE K and sucralose. And then finally we have aspartame, aspartame, whatever we're going to call it, that's two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid. And then they add a little bit of methanol to it. Some studies suggest potential links between aspartame consumption and neurological symptoms. Some people don't feel good on it. It's like having a giant plate of Chinese food with dmsg. Some people get headaches, migraines, dizziness, mood changes. Not everybody, but it's been hypothesized that aspartame. Aspartame, if I can spit it out, it might alter brain neurotransmitters like serotonin or dopamine. But there's mixed evidence on that. People with risk of epilepsy shouldn't do this. So so far we've established you have kidney issues or epilepsy issues. The Diet Coke with the protein power added to it might not be the fix for you. And similar to the other artificial sweeteners, a possible impact on insulin function. The possibility of a link between aspartame and cancer is something that's been debated for a long time. There were early animal studies and high dosages that suggested possible increased risk of brain tumors. But more recent Studies, including some big ones that are pretty good by the fda, found no significant link between aspartame and cancer in humans. There are epidemiological studies indicating a link between it and lymphoma or leukemia, but it's tough to say because a lot of people who walk around all day drinking Diet Coke in some cases are consuming other things that might not be healthy for them, like, I don't know, hamburger and fries that they got along with the Diet Coke and then the phenylalanine. The only thing you have to know is some people have what's called phenyl ketonuria. That's pku. It's a rare genetic disorder. People with that genetic disorder can't metabolize phenylalanine properly. You probably know if you have this, and you've probably already been warned by your physician not to have.

Aspartame if you have pku. So ultimately, you could do worse than Diet Coke with this core protein power animal. Whatever. The protein shake is the core power that she's adding to this stuff. But here's my take. Here's my take. Why not just get a water and add a few scoops of essential amino acids to it? Okay, if you were to put 20 to 25 grams of essential amino acids into water, you're getting 20 to 25 grams of bioavailable protein and that comes out to 20 to 25 calories, far fewer than what we're seeing here. And it's super clean. So I would rather do something like that if I'm in a pinch and need a quick protein fix than I would put this slightly high host of chemicals into my body. So I'm, I'm an essential amino acids and water guy. Throw a few ketones in there if you want an even bigger fix. Essential amino acids are not that expensive. So that's my hack. If you want to try this out, let me know in the comments section below. If you do, let me know your favorite flavor to mix with Diet Coke. Maybe next time I'm at the gas station, which is pretty rare, I'll try this out for myself. But those are my thoughts on the protein Diet Coke trend. If you like this video, click like subscribe to my channel. And if you like these reaction videos, let me know. I'd love to do do more. I. I always like to see what's trending because, heck, I don't get out much. Thank you, Rebecca Gordon, for the viral TikTok idea of the Diet Coke with a bottle of Fairlife High protein core power vanilla shake. I'm Ben Greenfield. Thanks for watching.