# Would Diet Coke have killed her? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072 "2013-02-22T13:42:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/1 "2013-02-22T13:42:05Z")
There was a story a while back about Coca-Cola being a factor in [a woman’s death](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21423499) at the age of 30 in New Zealand. She drank up to 10 litres (!) of it a day. If she had swapped out the regular variety of Coca-Cola for another variety the beverage maker puts out, like [Diet Coke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke), [Diet Coke Caffeine-Free](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_Caffeine-Free) or [Coke Zero](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Zero) and chugged 10 litres of that a day would her health have fared much better? What would be the expected results of such consumption - would she have eventually succumbed to water intoxication? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/2 "2013-02-22T13:45:55Z")
It seems that the sugar was the most problematic, but that the caffeine intake was also above a safe dosage. So, in theory, diet coke would have been better but still very bad, while diet caffeine-free coke wouldn not have caused the issues discussed in the article. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/3 "2013-02-22T14:08:51Z")
Was she also eating pop rocks and Mentos? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/4 "2013-02-22T14:16:54Z")
I’d think that the amount of water would have been enough to kill her. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/5 "2013-02-22T14:25:04Z")
I get that the coroner is concerned about this case and the health of the general population, but > [@](#): > > But he called on soft drinks companies to display clearer warnings on their beverages about the risks of too much sugar and caffeine. seriously? I’m pretty sure the vast majority of us are not as foolish and careless as this woman was (I hope), so as to not require a label on our soft drinks warning us not to consume two and a half gallons of soda a day. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/6 "2013-02-22T14:54:54Z")
It looks like the caffeine was probably the largest contributing factor in her death, so it would have made little difference if it was Diet Coke. I’m kind of surprised that 10 litres of Coke only contains twice the recommended maximum daily intake of caffeine. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/7 "2013-02-22T15:39:59Z")
Are artificial sweeteners safe in those amounts? I always thought sugar is safer at high doses. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/8 "2013-02-22T15:49:30Z")
I have a 1st cousin that drank 8 16oz bottles of coke every day for weeks. He eventually went to the hospital because his kidneys shut down. Had he waited a couple of more days it would have killed him. He can’t explain why he was drinking so much, just said he couldn’t get enough. His brillant deduction was to now drink sprite. Also a lot less of it. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/9 "2013-02-22T16:08:02Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > I’d think that the amount of water would have been enough to kill her. Just might. There’s water intoxication, also known as water poisoning or dilutional hyponatremia. I’ve seen people get sick when sweating a lot and just drinking plain water plus avoiding salt. You can see it in people running in a marathon or riding a bicycle 100 miles on a hot day. However regular Diet Coke has pretty much sodium/salt in it. > **[Water intoxication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication)** > > Water intoxication, also known as water poisoning, hyperhydration, overhydration, or water toxemia, is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that can result when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside safe limits by excessive water intake. > Under normal circumstances, accidentally consuming too much water is exceptionally rare. Most deaths related to water intoxication in healthy individuals have resulted either from water-drinking contests, in which individ... ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/10 "2013-02-22T16:26:14Z")
This quote from coroner David Crerar is interesting. > [@](#): > > The fact that one or more of her children were born without enamel on their teeth should have been treated by her, and by her family, as a warning. Is there some way that this could have been caused her Coke consumption? ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/11 "2013-02-22T16:57:49Z")
The only explanation I can think of for why children might not develop correctly would be some sort of strange mineral deficiency caused by the mother having to process all the phosphoric acid in soft drinks. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/12 "2013-02-22T18:57:16Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > I’d think that the amount of water would have been enough to kill her. Not likely. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/13 "2013-02-22T19:53:20Z")
Based on the cause of death, cardiac arrest, it seems that either electrolyte imbalance or caffeine toxicity (does caffeine accumulate in the body if you consume large amounts over time?) were the main factors. The sugar itself probably not, unless she was enormously obese (10 liters of Coke has 4,000 calories, twice the recommended daily intake). I doubt that artificial sweeteners would be toxic at such dosages as well; they are tested at levels far higher than anybody could reasonably consume them in (unless you ate it in concentrated form); I know that aspartame would only be toxic if you had a [genetic defect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria) (and then pretty much all protein-containing foods, many with much higher levels of phenylalanine, would be off-limits). ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-diet-coke-have-killed-her/651072/14 "2013-02-22T21:07:26Z")
Caffeinated diet coke has more caffeine than regular coke so if that was a major cause it would have been worse. I found it less ‘morish’ though, so suspect her consumption would have dropped drastically - the sugar plays a large role in my view. Otara