Shirtless men in advertising

I couldn't go through Diet Coke month without mentioning the Diet Coke man, now could I?





The original is always the best. It may be the fact that the early 90s fashions have dated but the women in this commercial look like women who work in a normal office (and not just Conde Nast) and the actual Diet Coke man looks like he earned those muscles working, not in the gym. That's right, it wasn't all happy pants and scrunchies - the men were manly! 

It may not be 11:30 but I'm sure you want to take your Diet Coke break. More diet cola men after the jump.

Maybe I chose the right time to give up

Yes, I know this was on the 7pm Project tonight but it's topical and it's relevant. According to a study carried out by the University of Minnesota and the National University of Singapore, I can now add soft drinks to the already-giant list of Stuff That Will Kill Me. Other members of that list include cling wrap, plastic water bottles, aerosol deodorants, red meat and aspartame.

The scientists followed more than 60,000 men and woment over 14 years and of those, 140 people died from pancreatic cancer. Those who consumed soft drinks more than once a week (the article is a bit shaky on the frequency so maybe we'll go with regularly) were found to have almost twice the risk of contracting the cancer, after taking other control issues such as red meat consumption into account.

The link: high consumption of sugary soft drinks causes the pancreas to secrete more insulin, which has been found to cause an increase in the number of cancer cells.

So there's a seven in 3000 chance that I might get pancreatic cancer (big leap, but let me have my numerical inacuracy please) due to my soft drink consumption. Is this a common ailment in diabetics, I wonder. Ooh, ooh, hang on - loophole! Diet soft drinks are less likely to cause the cancer as they aren't made from sugar. Diet Coke - we're still on as soon. The first day of May is looking better and better.

ABC: Soft drink doubles pancreatic cancer risk: study

Diet Coke: An era in advertising. Or, an excuse for me to show lots of cheesy ads

Diet softdrink ads aimed at both sexes always seem to be promising men that they can have just as much fun drinking the beverage version of a Nissan Micra (no offense to Nissan, but one of your main selling points for this car is it comes in so many colours you could match it to your nail polish). Yes, you over there - you can still drive a sportscar and wear a cable knit jumper even if you're swigging on the same thing as the missus.

Now that I've made you suffer through enough of my opinion please take in some vintage advertising (more opinions to come!).

Missing DC

I never thought I was a slave to cola. Sure, I drank it a bit with meals and with my spirits, but that didn't mean I had a problem. Now I'm not so sure. I didn't really miss chocolate for the first week I wasn't eating it and it wasn't until about halfway through January that I started to feel like I was being stalked by Mr Cadbury and Mrs Nestle. And Freddo. Next time you're in the confectionary aisle of the supermarket take a look at the giant Freddos. They have shifty eyes and they look at you. Where was I? Oh yes, cola. I noticed the absence of Diet Coke in my life on THE FIRST DAY. I was tired, grumpy, distracted (still am, apparently) not sleeping properly... In general, just poo.

On the upside, I can have chocolate which is giving me my regular dose of caffeine. On the downside, I miss my daily can of DC. I miss tapping the top of the can three times before I open it. I miss the refreshing sound of carbon dioxide escaping from vacuum sealed aluminium. I miss the astringent sting of bubbles and my knowledge that it tastes better out of a can than out of a plastic bottle. And the taste. I miss that too. Thank God February's a short month.

Today's discovery

Lemonade, though lemony, is not a Diet Coke substitute.

Breaking up is hard to do

You know how I said that I thought chocolate was going to be the tricky one? This was before I gave up Diet Coke. The big DC. I think it may be my own personal form of crack.

According to my good friend Wikipedia, withdrawal is caused by a reduction in the production of dopamine by the nucleus accumbens (this is a rough paraphrase so please don't yell at me if I'm not entirely correct - it's been a long day and I want DC). They even go so far as to say that:

Subnormal activity in the nucleus accumbens is often characterized by depression, anxiety and craving, and if extreme can drive the individual to continue the drug despite significant harm — the definition of addiction — or even to suicide.

Hmmm... don't know about the depression but the anxiety and cravings are right on the money. Maybe I need to book myself into the Betty Crocker clinic.

Source: Wikipedia: Withdrawal

February: Diet Coke

The deal
To go without diet coke and all other cola beverages for 28 days.

Any exceptions?
None required.

The hypothesis
Aside from chocolate, diet coke is probably the main source of caffeine in my system. Let's wait for the crash! I'm more interested in seeing how long it takes to get over the withdrawal and how it affects my sleep patterns, etc. Let's see if it results in a calmer, more zenlike me.