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Nothing, and I mean nothing hits harder than a cheeky Coke Zero at 3 pm on a Wednesday arvo.
Something about the cold, fizzy sensation hitting your dry throat makes all of life's problems seem small, even if just for a moment.
For a few minutes, you get to experience total bliss... until someone walks past and says, "That's so bad for your health by the way."
Watch: Diet soda and aspartame. Post continues below.
Yes, thank you Janet from accounts, it's not like I haven't been told my whole life that a can of Coke is going to cause cancer and make my teeth disappear.
While the latter has some truth to it, drinking Coke Zero isn't all that bad overall, according to Fitness influencer James Smith and the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. According to their in-depth research, you would have to consume a monstrous amount of the soft drink's artificial sweetener aspartame, for it to cause real harm to the rest of the body.
So, if you have a Coke Zero addiction and want to feel better about it, then let me break down why everything you've ever known to be true has actually been a lie (kind of).
First of all, what is aspartame?
Image: Getty