In my early 20's I made it a point to stop drinking and eating garbage like Starbucks frappucinos. After a period of 3 years I found myself in a place that only sold the pre-made frappuchinos and some other drinks, but no water or water-like drinks. So I bought one. And in the intervening years it had become disgustingly sweet. Like so sweet that I almost threw up and had to throw away half the bottle. So yes, avoiding sugar will change your tastebuds.
I used to have a can of coke for breakfast every day. I improved my diet a few years ago. I still enjoy the first few sips, bit I can't drink a whole can anymore.
A 12oz bottle for my rare (these days) soda indulgence is usually about four ounces too many. Dunno how a 20-ouncer ever seemed like a single serving to me, but it did.
I think free soda refills in restaurants becoming normal in the 90s is an under-appreciated contributor to American health & diet problems. There were Big Gulps and such before that but giant 32+oz soda servings weren't as common as now (have you seen how huge the medium cup is at some fast food joints now?), and most folks had maybe two glasses of soda when eating at a restaurant, if they really liked soda. Suddenly, with free refills and a server constantly topping you off, it's almost natural to become accustomed to downing huge amounts of the stuff.
I really like/appreciate the little 6-8oz cans here myself. Juice, as an example, when I was little was a serving of 4oz, and one wasn't meant to have it more than a few (3-4) times a week, as explained by my grandmother (when I was little) and definitely not meant to have a giant fruit juice smoothie every day.
One 12oz can of soda is the recommended daily sugar limit for an adult male. How many people consume way more than that every single day. And it's been hidden in so many products over the years. Now it's almost worse using artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols that have varying affects person to person.
Like gluten intolerance (celiac at ~1% and intolerance at 3-4%), may foods and combinations only affect a small piece of the population, but with processed franken-foods it's possible to affect much larger portions in varying ways. And it can be temporary or cumulative, such as with histamine intolerance, which is probably the issue most people who think they may have gluten problems lay.
