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Comment by petecooper | Hacker News Reader

I was hooked on Pepsi Max in the early 2000s. A high pressure tech support role at an antivirus vendor was the perfect environment for me to blast through a 2 litre bottle on a typical work day. That habit almost broke me physically, ended up binging and had a mini nervous breakdown within 2 years. Not recommended.

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Just n = 1 as well, but I’ve been drinking around 3 litres of diet coke per day for the past 15-20 years and haven’t had any adverse physical effects.

Jesus, any plans to donate your body to science at some point to study the effects of such high consumption?

I ingest twice that amount of sucralose every day and I'm fine, too.

Do you consume other caffeinated beverages like coffee or tea?

I don’t, or only very rarely. I like cold beverages, and I like the coke taste, to the point that I even drink caffeine-free coke in the evening.

50/50 shot that you aren't aware of the adverse effects it is having.

Well, studies so far seem to be inconclusive overall, so I’m hoping for the best. :)

If they aren't aware, is it even that adverse?

Many potential side-effects might be invisible until it's already gotten to the point of causing damage. Think lung cancer in smokers that don't destroy the body for decades[0], or the amount of people with prediabetes that won't know until their blood glucose level qualifies them for a type 2 diagnoses.

0: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141009154007.h...

1.5 liters of Diet Coke a day here, plus quite a bit of coffee and I'm also doing ok. No real signs of moderate or severe dehydration either, maybe mild, but very mild if so.

I'm not sure if your point is you would be dehydrated from the caffeine, but that not true; https://time.com/5192272/coffee-tea-dehydrating/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...

Ah, classic

https://www.theonion.com/man-who-drinks-5-diet-cokes-per-day...

The only thing that worries me about diet coke is what it may do to the gut microbiome and how it lowers Vitamin D levels in the body.

Other than that, far, far better than regular coke, which should be banned for people under the age of 21.

That's impressive. I thought I needed an intervention because the other day I managed to drink an entire six pack of Pepsi Zero Sugar in one day. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much...

Same. I'm on caffeine free now but I haven't kicked the entire habit yet.

That said - it's much easier to drink just water now. No caffeine headaches and such. Can't actually drink the caffeinated diet coke anymore - get sick from it. Super weird.

I would assume that the "high pressure tech support role" also had a lot to do with it

yeah, stress can do terrible things to your body, affect nervous system function, cognitive impairment, major stomach issues, affect the heart and its function, and on and on..

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