Difference Between Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max (With Table)

There is hardly a soul on Earth who doesn’t enjoy a good carbonated drink. However, rising health concerns with these highly sweetened drinks had become a major hurdle for the soft-drink manufacturers.

But soon carbonated drinks saw reformations that came out as alternatives to address these health-related challenges.

One of the major soft-drink firm Pepsi or sometimes called Pepsi-Cola introduced Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max to compete in the market. Both these versions were concocted keeping in mind the health-related challenges.

Diet Pepsi vs Pepsi Max

The difference between Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max is that Diet Pepsi uses only aspartame whereas Pepsi max uses both aspartame and acesulfame potassium but Diet Pepsi has higher aspartame content.

Another key difference in the marketing strategies was that Diet Pepsi was introduced as zero calories and carbohydrate free whereas Pepsi Max was introduced as low-calories and low – carbohydrate content drink.

Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max also differ in their caffeine content. Diet Pepsi was created with lower caffeine content of 23mg whereas Pepsi Max has higher caffeine of 43mg.

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Parameter of Comparison	Diet Pepsi	Pepsi Max
Ingredients	Aspartame	Aspartame and acesulfame potassium
Carbohydrate content	Zero Carbohydrate	Low Carbohydrate
Introduced in (year)	1964	1993
Introduced in (place)	United States	Europe
Aspartame content	Lower, 23mg	Higher, 43mg

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Diet Pepsi was introduced in the United States in 1964 as an alternative for Pepsi Max. The main reason behind this new twist was the presence of Acesulfame in Pepsi Max. Acesulfame was yet not legalized for human consumption in the States and a new product development rather than reforming an existing product was more economical for the Company.

Besides cutting off Acesulfame, this new merchandise claimed to have zero carbohydrate and zero calories that give it a competitive advantage. However not all was good about Diet Pepsi, it turned out to have higher amount of Aspartame of 111 mg. And although it was claimed to have zero calories, it was quite often linked with weight gain and was deemed disadvantageous for diabetes patients.

Diet Pepsi was introduced in Canada in 1983 and circulated in the name Pepsi Light which gave heavy competition to Diet Coke which also came around the same time.

The main ingredients in Diet Pepsi are aspartic acid, carbonated water, phosphoric acid, caffeine, natural flavor, artificial color, citric acid, and potassium benzoate, however the ingredients used for the Canadian branch was slightly different. There were several other variations of this branch such as the Lime Twist and Lemon Twist versions. But Diet Pepsi was criticized by the health professionals for its negative effects on heart health and obesity.

Pepsi Max was launched in the European countries of United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy and Australia initially in 1993. It was finally introduced in America in 2006 delayed for its Acesulfame content. Other ingredients in Pepsi Max are acids, carbonated water, colors, and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, preservatives, and artificial flavoring. Pepsi Max claimed to be low in Carbohydrate and calories.

This PepsiCo product had a high caffeine content of 43mg but had lower Aspartame content of 77mg per serving. One serving of Pepsi max was 330ml. There were several varieties of Pepsi Max that followed into the market with different flavors to attract more consumers.

Lemon and lime twist, ceasefire, lime, punch, E coffee, cool lemon, chill, mojo, cherry, ginger, vanilla, raspberry, creamy soda, and mango were the many flavored varieties released into the market.

But even with all these flavors and varieties, there were several aspects the Pepsi Max was demeaned for. The foremost of them were for the addition of Acesulfame Potassium which has carcinogenic properties associated with it.

Also chronic effects of long term consumption of this carbonated drink is associated with kidney failure, liver failure, depression, mental confusion, headaches and nausea, etc.

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Both Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max were launched in the market with a healthier twist as marketing strategy. Diet Pepsi was introduced as an alternate to Diet Pepsi in United States in 1964 for the Acesulfame related legal limitations in the country.

The main difference between Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max is that Diet Pepsi uses only aspartame whereas Pepsi max uses both aspartame and acesulfame potassium and however, Diet Pepsi has a higher Aspartame content than Pepsi Max.

Another important difference lies in the fact that Diet Pepsi has lower caffeine content than Pepsi Max. Diet Pepsi has 23mg of caffeine whereas the latter has 43mg of caffeine which makes Max more addictive than Diet Pepsi.

There were several other variations Diet Pepsi such as the Lime Twist and Lemon Twist versions whereas the main variations of Pepsi Max were Lemon and lime twist, ceasefire, lime, punch, E coffee, cool lemon, chill, mojo, cherry, ginger, vanilla, raspberry, creamy soda, and mango.

However, many a number of health problems were reported on long term consumption of these soft drinks by researchers. These were mostly related to kidney malfunction, obesity, heart diseases, type-2 diabetes and liver failure.

In spite of the negative feedback from health experts, these soft drinks continue to flourish in the market and many people reports them addictive. The addictive characteristic is imparted by the huge amounts of caffeine and aspartame contents.

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Last update on 2021-08-01 / Amazon Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API