Cola without sugar

Removing the sugar leaves the flavouring base untouched, and that base — kola nut, citrus oils, spices — is where cola's salicylate comes from. Same load as the regular version. Neither study publishes a value for this particular drink.

Sugar-free cola removes the sugar and changes nothing that matters here - the caffeine, the caramel colour and the benzoate are all still there, and an intense sweetener is added on top. The diet version is not the gentler version for histamine; it is the same drink with one ingredient swapped.

Sugar-free cola has no fructose of its own - the level is here because the category is mixed: some no-sugar formulations still carry fruit juice or a sweetener blend. The ingredient list settles it in one line.

Sugar-free cola is carbonated water with sugar or sweetener, caramel colour, acid and caffeine. None of those is a protein, and tyramine needs protein, bacteria and time. It is on the scale because caffeinated drinks are reviewed alongside tyramine on some protocols, not because it carries any.

Regular cola is high on this axis for one ingredient - high-fructose corn syrup - and the sugar-free version does not have it. What replaced it decides whether the question is closed or merely moved: aspartame and acesulfame are not FODMAPs and close it, while a polyol sweetener ending in -itol would open the sorbitol axis instead. Read the sweetener, not the word 'zero'.

Sugar-free cola removes the fructose, and the fructose was half the reason regular cola is flagged - so this version sits at none on the oxalate axis. The phosphoric acid is still there and still a question for bone and calcium, which belongs to a different page than this one.