water, acids for the sour taste, coloring, caffeine and sweetener that is more effective than sugar and just activates the sweet taste buds, but has no significant nutritiinal value.

Aspartame has about the same amount of calories as sugar (4kcal per gram). But it's much more sweet so you need very little of it. So there is a very tiny amount of sweetener which does contain calories but it's rounded down to 0.

egg white is 90% water. it doesn't take much to drastically alter water

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/769164/nutrients

INGREDIENTS: CARBONATED WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, ASPARTAME, PHOSPHORIC ACID, POTASSIUM BENZOATE (TO PROTECT TASTE), NATURAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, CAFFEINE.

In Australia they give (from largest to smallest):

Ingredients

• Carbonated Water
• Colour (150d)
• Food Acids (338, 330)
• Sweeteners (951, 950)
• Flavour
• Caffeine

With the numbers corresponding to:

• 150d - soft-drink caramel
• 338 - phosphoric acid
• 330 - citric acid
• 951 - Aspartame
• 950 - Acesulfame potassium

I believe its mostly soda water and caramel coloring (no duh)

The sweetness is from aspartame, a very common artificial zero-calorie sweetener.

Aside from that it's gonna be a (trade secret, they'll never tell us) mixture of artificial and natural flavorings. All virtually zero calorie, and probably in very small amounts.

The nutrition panel only captures a subset of important bioavailable nutrients.

For example, water is obviously a digestible nutrient, but is not represented there on.

what is in it is listed in the ingredients list.

It's a cola with an artificial sweetener. There's lots of misinformation out there about diet soda. It mostly passes through you, unlike regular soda which has lots of sugar that your body stores as fat. Not to say either one is healthy because it most certainly is not. However, phosphoric acid in cola (both regular and diet) can lead to an increased risk of kidney stones. In case anyone is wondering I do not work for big soda, I've just read way too much about this topic. That being said please drink more water. Unsweetened tea or black coffee is also acceptable. Anything is fine in moderation. Soda is supposed to be a treat enjoyed once in a while, now it's a mass market product that is way too accessible. And no diet soda does not cause cancer, please stop citing a garbage study that has been disproven every subsequent trial.

For that, look at the ingredients list, not the "nutrition facts".

It's all about how they sweeten the drink. Regular coke uses corn syrup while diet coke uses aspartame. This allows the diet coke to have no calories.

I think of it as a flavored seltzer.

Aspartame is the sweet flavor and unspecified "natural flavors" do the rest.

I don't drink it often anymore, but it's great for a no calorie treat. No it won't give you diabetes but you shouldn't drink it instead of water. It isn't water.

As I understand diet coke uses sucralose, not aspartame as sweetener.

Sucralose has a different sweetness profile, much closer to real sugar and is not bitter. Compared to aspartame in zero/light that needs 0.2g salt/liter to cover up the bitterness.