It should be cheaper without the sugar.

I suppose they substitute materials which are not readily available or produced in huge quantities that is why they raise the prices. Just like sugar instead from using the sugar from the most common source: sugarcane, they use synthetic sugars or fruit sugars which are more expensive to process. Another example is organic meat. Animal grown organically take more time to grow because they are fed from all-natural sources, their counterparts however are fed with commercial feed so they grow at a fast rate thereby fast return of income for farmers.

Hmmmm.. I think, it has something to do with the demand and supply law. People nowadays are so health conscious. If for instance the diet cokes. Everyone knows that it contains a lot of sugar. So, if the mass will know that the market offers this kind of product, because of their health conscious attitude, the demand for the product increases. Thus, increasing also the price of the product. I hope I got it right. :D

With the example you used of the soda. It's just as costly as they use artificial sweetners in diet, zero calorie, sugar free items. Have you seen the price of sugar alternatives at the store to use in your food, drinks and baking, its very exepensive to use the artificial sweetners.

You would think so, however if you actually read the ingredients you'll find that there are other things added to the bottles which means that there aren't actually any less ingredients at all. Because the things that they add are often chemically manufactured, these cost more than the things that they're replacing. I think that, in general, healthy foods should be cheaper than unhealthy foods, as this might mean that people would choose the healthy option more often which would of course be greatly beneficial to everyone in the country who is struggling with their weight at the moment.

I think maybe it's because of the processing? Or probably the use of the less-sweetened sugar that the manufacturers used. I don't think it's 100% sugar free, they just use aspartame to add to the drink, right?

I guess since it has the name DIET it is 'special'. I mean, why not make a couple extra bucks off something that's easier to make, but has a cool name? lol well I think diet foods and drinks may have added nutrients that processed foods don't. Also I think it may be harder to farm healthier crops (crops without chemicals). Well thanks for getting me thinking on that one!

Well in my opinion now a days people became more aware of their health.To maintain a normal physique many normal health people take diet coke and go for the sugar substitute.So as a business policy the high selling product has the high price,where as the low selling thing has the low price.

it cost more to make the diet products, for example taken out the sugar require more procedures, that's mean more money for them to spend so they need to get that money back. here the big coke is cheaper than the small one, i did not understand now i got it, they make you pay the convenience.