Tim Waltz is Kamala Harris' running mate, and J.D. Vance is Donald Trump's running mate, so the twain will never meet. Right? No. At least not when it comes to their (and Lana Del Rey's?) alleged favorite soft drink: Diet Mountain Dew.
Last month, Vance reportedly made a lame joke about drinking soda (later mocked by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear) and toasted it with a soda during a public appearance on Newsmax, declaring, “This is good stuff. High in caffeine, low in calories.”
Meanwhile, according to locals, Waltz testified several years ago that a “bottomless can” of soda was his drink of choice, as noted in a short article in Tuesday's New York Times about “The Strange Turn of Fate of a Beverage.” He also recently testified to his love of soda at X.
News of this amusing parallel comes nearly a year after the World Health Organization raised concerns about the health risks of aspartame, one of three artificial sweeteners (along with acesulfame potassium and sucralose) used in Diet Mountain Dew, and a few months after the Federal Trade Commission issued warnings to the American Beverage Association and the Canadian Sugar Association for paying nutritionist influencers on TikTok and Instagram to promote the safety of aspartame without disclosing their ties to the industry groups.
Artificial Sweeteners and Diet Mountain Dew
The FDA considers all three sweeteners to be “generally recognized as safe,” but it doesn't require manufacturers to present significant peer-reviewed research to place a food additive in that category, cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., director of the Food is Drug Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, previously told Fortune.
It also failed to stop the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) from classifying artificial sweeteners as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, or level 2B out of 4, and calling for further research.
“The assessment of aspartame does not indicate any major safety concerns at doses commonly used, but points to potential effects that need to be investigated by more and better quality studies,” Dr Francesco Branca, director of WHO's food safety and nutrition department, said at the time.
“Group 2B classification is the third highest of four levels,” the American Cancer Society explained, citing WHO evidence. “It is generally used when there is limited and unconvincing evidence of cancer in humans or convincing evidence of cancer in laboratory animals, but not both.”
According to the FDA, a 150-pound person would have to drink about nine to 14 cans of diet soda a day to reach a dangerous level.
But aspartame is just one of 16 ingredients in the diet soda, according to the nutritional label on parent company PepsiCo's website, and a company spokesman told Fortune “we have no comment” when asked about the product's healthiness.
Are the other ingredients in Diet Mountain Dew bad for you?
Here's the full ingredient list: “Carbonated Water, Orange Juice Concentrate, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Potassium Benzoate (Preserves Freshness), Citrus Pectin, Aspartame, Potassium Citrate, Caffeine, Sodium Citrate, Acesulfame Potassium, Sucralose, Gum Arabic, Sodium Benzoate (Preserves Freshness), Disodium EDTA (Flavor Protection), Yellow No. 5.”
This complex yellow-green combination has earned the product a food score of 6 out of 10 (with 10 being most dangerous) on the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) consumer website, which says that the most potentially dangerous ingredients are the artificial color Yellow No. 5, the nonspecific chemical mixture “natural flavors,” and aspartame.
“Diet Mountain Dew gets a low rating because of concerns about its ingredients and processing, as well as the company's clear lack of nutritional value,” Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist at EWG, told Fortune.
In addition to aspartame, the ingredients cited by Stoiber include Yellow No. 5, natural flavors, and the artificial sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame potassium.
“There have been recent studies looking at associations with cardiovascular disease involving these three sweeteners,” Stoiber said, pointing to a 2023 observational study that found associations between aspartame and stroke, and acesulfame potassium and sucralose and increased risk of coronary artery disease.
Meanwhile, the artificial coloring Yellow No. 5, also known as tatraazine, should be used with caution, “especially in young children,” she says, because of “numerous epidemiological studies” showing links to behavioral changes, including irritability, restlessness, depression, and sleep disorders. EWG is sponsoring a California bill that would require schools to remove artificial colors from foods children eat, but it is still pending. However, both the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) consider Yellow No. 5 safe.
According to the EWG, natural flavors may actually contain synthetic chemicals and may not have been thoroughly evaluated for safety.
Other controversial ingredients include the preservative calcium disodium EDTA (a slightly salty powder that has been found to be linked to digestive issues when consumed in large quantities) and the additive sodium benzoate, which has been linked across various studies (though without evidence of causation) to hyperactivity, increased anxiety, disrupted hormone levels, and liver and kidney dysfunction in children, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Nutrients (though it is not officially considered harmful, and the same study even showed it may have therapeutic benefits in treating depression, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and neurodegenerative diseases).
Finally, a 12-ounce serving of Diet Mountain Dew contains 54 milligrams of caffeine, while a cup of coffee of the same size contains about 130 milligrams of caffeine.
That's why drinking sugary or artificially sweetened sodas “sets a bad example for young people who are forming habits,” according to Alice H. Lichtenstein, professor of nutritional sciences and senior scientist at the USDA Jean Mayer Center on Aging and Human Nutrition at Tufts University. “Rather than giving up sugary drinks, it's better not to start drinking them in the first place.”
So what about Waltz and Vance's cravings?
“One of the best things you can do for your health and energy levels is to stay hydrated,” suggests Stoiber, “and drinking filtered water is a great way to do that.”
