How do drinks have carbs but no calories?

Lots of things besides water have no calories. Anything you can't digest has no calories. Cellulose has no calories: you could eat wood chips all day and not gain any weight. Cellulose is one kind of fiber. read more

When there are carbohydrates, but not calories in a drink, this is because though we can break down and gain energy from many carbohydrates, there's still some we are unable to digest. These do contain energy, but not in a form that the human digestive system can make use of. read more

For example, Diet Coke has zero calories, zero grams of fat, zero grams of sugar and no carbs. Nowadays, almost every diet soda on the market has no calories, sugar, fat or carbs. Compared to regular soda, which is packed with calories, carbs and sugar, diet soda seems like a nutritional angel. read more

Title 21of the Code of Federal Regulations section 101.60(b)(1) allows any food with less than 5 calories per serving to claim to have zero calories or be calorie free. read more