There has been recent research which suggests that diet sodas are even worse than HFCS sodas, and those are more damaging than sugar sweetened sodas. Some say it's simply that people who drink diet sodas feel virtuous and overeat more...Others say artificial sweeteners cannot be metabolized as efficiently as sugar and so it causes physiological changes in the body that makes the body store fat far more "efficiently"...Me, I loathe the taste of diet drinks and would rather drink battery acid, so I didn't read the studies when they were posted to FR about 18-24 months ago too carefully. Maybe someone saved the links and will post or e mail them to you. Have you ever tried Izze sparkling Juice? It's fruit juice and carbonated H2O, and that's it. It is sooooo good, especially the Sparkling Blackberry.
Hah! I remembered before I posted this that I e mailed the diet drink thing to a relative who drinks that noxious bitter crap-I pulled it out of Sent Items, and here's the article