Diet soda made its debut in 1952, when Brooklyn, New York’s Kirsch Beverage Company introduced No-Cal, a sugar-free ginger beer. The company’s founder, Hyman Kirsch, was also the vice president of the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Disease. He developed the zero-calorie beverage not for dieters, but for diabetics and cardiac patients. In 1958, Royal Crown offered Diet Rite Cola on a limited basis, also aimed at the medically-restricted crowd.
Things quickly changed in 1963 when Weight Watchers International was formed. Suddenly, people were openly discussing weight problems on television, low-calorie recipes filled magazines, and dieting became a national pastime. Diet Rite went national (making it the first diet soft drink sold coast-to-coast), followed shortly by Tab and then Diet Pepsi in 1964.
Tab was a Coca-Cola product, but in 1983, the company finally put the brand name appeal of their flagship product to work by introducing Diet Coke. More recently, the development of new artificial sweeters has led to the introduction of a wide variety of diet soft drinks in today’s market.
