What Diet Soft Drinks Have Splenda?
Updated on August 7, 2025
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Splenda is the brand name for sucralose, an artificial sweetener. It’s used in a variety of foods and beverages, including those aimed at people who are living with diabetes or who just want to cut down on calories.
Instead of sugar, sucralose is used in low-calorie versions of chewing gum, ice cream, and soft drinks. It remains sweet even when subject to intense heat and during long-term storage.
Read on to learn more about which soft drinks contain sucralose — and how to figure out if others do.
Is Splenda Safe?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sucralose for use as a general-purpose sweetener in a variety of foods in 1999. To make this decision, the FDA reviewed more than 110 studies on the safety of using sucralose as a general-purpose sweetener for food and beverages.
When it was first approved by the FDA, the acceptable daily intake of sucralose was 15 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight (bw). It has since been lowered to 5 mg/kg bw, and studies show that sucralose intake is rarely higher than this.
There is currently no evidence that sucralose is linked with a higher risk of developing cancer. Sucralose is also considered safe for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
What’s Wrong With Sugary Drinks?
Soft drinks are any non-alcoholic beverage with added sugar or other sweeteners. Some of examples of soft drinks are:
- Energy drinks
- Soda or pop
- Cola
- Fruit punch
- Lemonade
- Sports drinks
For people in the United States, sugary drinks are a main source of added sugars. Drinking a lot of these beverages can contribute to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, among other conditions.
Splenda and Weight Loss
Sucralose has zero calories. Your body only metabolizes about 85 percent of the sucralose you consume. This artificial sweetener also has no effect on your blood sugar, and what remains in your body after absorption remains relatively unchanged.
But research shows that if you're looking to lose weight, low-calorie sweeteners don’t really seem to have an impact. There’s currently no known link between low-calorie sweetener intake and body weight or composition. And the World Health Organization (WHO) actually recommends against using non-sugar sweeteners “to control body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases.”
Soft Drinks Sweetened With Splenda
Pepsi doesn’t currently market any soft drink that includes Splenda by name, but examples of products sweetened with sucralose include:
- Diet Pepsi
- Aquafina flavored waters
- Brisk iced teas and fruit-blend drinks
- Diet Mountain Dew (caffeine-free and regular)
- Diet Lipton teas
- Gatorade Zero
- Propel
- Pure Leaf diet iced teas
- Mountain Dew Kickstart
Coca-Cola products that don’t have sugar tend to contain the artificial sweetener aspartame, including Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Diet Coke. The company introduced a version of Diet Coke that was sweetened with Splenda in 2009, but it was discontinued in 2024.
If you’re not sure whether a drink contains sucralose or not, check out the Nutrition Facts label on the product’s packaging. This is where any ingredients like sucralose will be listed.
The Takeaway
- Sucralose is a nonnutritive sweetener often sold under the brand name Splenda.
- Examples of diet soft drinks that contain sucralose include Diet Pepsi and Diet Mountain Dew.
- If you’re not sure whether a drink contains sucralose or not, check out the nutritional information printed on the label.
- Sucralose contains no calories and is considered safe to use as a sweetener, but it may not help people who are trying to lose weight.
Resources We Trust
- Mayo Clinic: Artificial Sweeteners and Other Sugar Substitutes
- International Food Information Council: Sucralose
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Additional Information About High-Intensity Sweeteners Permitted for Use in Food in the United States
- American Pregnancy Association: Artificial Sweeteners and Pregnancy
- World Health Organization: Use of Non-Sugar Sweeteners: WHO Guideline
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
- Sucralose. International Food Information Council.
- Jarmakiewicz-Czaja et al. Effects of Selected Food Additives on the Gut Microbiome and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). Medicina. January 22, 2025.
- Sievenpiper JL et al. Dietary Guidance, Sensory, Health and Safety Considerations When Choosing Low and No-Calorie Sweeteners. Nutrients. February 25, 2025.
- Aspartame and Other Sweeteners in Food. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. February 27, 2025.
- Chen L. Beverages and Health. Encyclopedia of Human Nature. 2013.
- Get the Facts: Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Consumption. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April 11, 2022.
- Kossiva L et al. Chronic Use of Artificial Sweeteners: Pros and Cons. Nutrients. September 19, 2024.
- WHO Advises Not to Use Non-Sugar Sweeteners for Weight Control in Newly Released Guideline. World Health Organization. May 15, 2023.
- Sugar and Sweeteners. Pepsico.
- What Is Aspartame? Coca-Cola Company.
- Lamour J. Coca-Cola Has Been Quietly Discontinuing Fan-favorite Flavors. NBC. September 24, 2024.
- How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. March 5, 2024.
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