In addition to the sugar, one of the most problematic things about drinking cola is the amount of other electrolytes it takes to neutralize the acidity (a byproduct of sugar) and to balance the sodium in pop leaches a lot of important minerals from the body, which most North Americans are already way short of. The effects do not show up for a long time, but will manifest in the form of many diseases and effects that we typically associate with aging (digestive issues, cancer, osteoporosis, greying hair, wrinkling skin, hardened arteries, heart disease, arthritis, candida/unsufficient good bacteria in the stomach to digest food, edema, varicose veins and so on), but which are more related to over-acidic pH in the body and nutritional deficiency. I'm speaking from my own personal experience and deeply regret my poor eating/drinking habits throughout my teens and twenties (insufficient vegetables, too much pop), which I'm paying for in needless health problems in my thirties. Drinking diet pop will not deal with the acidity issue (even though it uses synthetic sugar rather than real sugar) nor with the sodium issue (all carbonated drinks contain a lot of sodium).