My wife and I enjoy traveling internationally. We have a global wall map upstairs and have placed push pins on the locations where we have visited. The map is covered with push pins, and we add new locations each year. One ritual that we have shared during our travels is a Diet Coke break. Diet Coke (or more recently, Coke Zero) is sold in cafes, restaurants, and markets. Other liquid refreshments vary depending on the location, but Diet Coke is ubiquitous.
When we worked in London and The Hague, our European colleagues drank mainly coffee or tea during work hours. It was usually cold outside, so a warm drink made more sense than a cold Diet Coke. However, when my energy level depleted, I would walk down the street to a McDonalds and purchase a Diet Coke. I had to specify that I wanted ice with my drink and more than just one cube. I grew up in Texas and Diet Coke without ice is uncivilized. The server would give me a puzzled look, then scooped up ice and filled the cup. When I returned to the office, I tried to hide my drink since my work colleagues snickered at my beverage choice.
The senior trading manager was an American who shared my affection for Diet Coke. He kept a refrigerator stocked full of Diet Coke cans. It was rumored that he drank ten or more cans a day which startled me. If I drank two cans in one day, my pulse quickened from the caffeine, and I would have difficulty sleeping. Trading is a stressful business and drinking Diet Coke perhaps helped manage his long workday.
President Trump mirrors my former trading manager as I read in press reports that he drinks twelve cans of Diet Coke a day and has a red button on his White House desk to request another new can. Elon Musk, a renown workaholic, is also fueled by Diet Coke. He called the inventor of Diet Coke “a genius” and he once posted that he had a drinking problem while showing a photo of his bedside table covered with empty Diet Coke cans. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was quoted as saying, “I think if I stopped drinking it [Diet Coke] I’d have a little bit of withdrawal.” There seems to be a common trend of workaholics that manage their lack of sleep by ingesting large quantities of caffeinated drinks. Perhaps I should have increased my Diet Coke consumption to gain entry into the billionaires’ club.
What I did discover is that the occasional refreshing drink on warm days can induce negative issues, if overconsumed. First, drinking Diet Cokes in the afternoon creates insomnia. If I sleep less than six hours a night, my productivity declines and my errors multiply. Second, Diet Coke’s artificial sweetener increases my desire for sugar. My willpower to decline sugary foods falls apart after drinking Diet Cokes; zero-calorie drinks cause me to eat more caloric foods. Third, the carbon dioxide injected into Diet Coke bloats my stomach. It takes at least three days without carbonated drinks for the gas to work its way out of my system. And finally, Diet Coke is acidic and erodes tooth enamel along with changing the body’s pH balance.
Life is a balancing act. Drinking a glass of wine does little harm to your body and perhaps increases a person’s longevity. Consuming a bottle of wine daily has been medically proven to harm the body. Doctors ask their patients how much alcohol they consume daily as a gauge on whether their lifestyle is healthy. Following this logic, drinking an occasional can of Diet Coke is refreshing and there are few negative effects. Drinking ten cans of Diet Coke to propel grinding work hours damages the body in two ways. First, sleep deprivation is proven to harm your health. There are many books on this subject, and I recommend the recent publication Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia. And second, ingesting large quantities of Diet Coke daily harms the body. I suggest reading the Healthline article by Adrienne Seitz (8 Potential Side Effects of Consuming Too Much Diet Soda).
When the Bible was written, Diet Coke was not invented, so thankfully Scripture does not condemn drinking it. God gave humankind the earth’s provisions: “God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit: you shall have them for food.’” (Genesis 1:29) “You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for the people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.” (Psalm 104:14–15) God does require humankind to have self-control: “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, or else, having too much, you will vomit it.” (Proverbs 25:16)
God understood the benefits of moderation when God commanded that the Sabbath be observed as a day without work. (Deuteronomy 5:12–15) Rest is a gift, not a burden. It is humans that defy this beneficial gift and ultimately, bear responsibility for the consequences. Perhaps instead of guzzling ten cans of Diet Cokes to work 120-hour weeks, enjoy one Diet Coke or a refreshing beverage of your choice on the Sabbath and get eight hours of sleep. You will enjoy more of God’s blessings during your healthier time on earth.
