I made a switch from regular to diet soda a few years ago and of course the biggest adjustment was Mountain Dew. I have very recently been trying to ween myself off soda altogether but between doing comic reviews and running Dungeons & Dragons sessions i find having heavily caffeinated beverages on hand a near necessity. But i wasn't convinced that the problems relating to diet soda were all that bad (studies showing a correlation between diet soda drinkers and overweight people probably have cause and effect reversed, and the thing about rats eating too much pudding doesn't bother me because i don't really like pudding).

But now we come back to the mysterious brominated vegetable oil. Since Mountain Dew is technically a citrus drink, they use the stuff to keep the flavoring from separating (it's in both regular and diet Dew). But:

Brominated vegetable oil contains bromine, the element found in brominated flame retardants, used in things like upholstered furniture and children's products. Research has found brominate flame retardants building up in the body and breast milk, and animal and some human studies have linked them to neurological impairment, reduced fertility, changes in thyroid hormones and puberty at an earlier age.

Limited studies of the effects of brominated vegetable oil in animals and in humans found buildups of bromine in fatty tissues. Rats that ingested large quantities of the substance in their diets developed heart lesions.

And clearly it's not absolutely necessary:

"B.V.O. is banned other places in the world, so these companies already have a replacement for it," Ms. Kavanagh said. "I don't see why they don't just make the switch." To that, companies say the switch would be too costly.

Not as costly as heart lesions! We will pay an extra dollar or whatever per carton to not drink flame retardant. And clearly it's not costly enough that it's a blocker to changing for sale in other countries.

I guess it's green tea for me. Blech.