This article is designed for hysteria for no good reason,
You haven't been paying attention. Local governments are gearing up to tax sodas, but they don't want to make the mistake of limiting it to sugary drinks like New York did. No, they need to include diet sodas. To do it they first have to convince a bunch of hand wringing worry warts that it's killing us, why it may be worse than tobacco! Now triple the price and govt takes two thirds! Problem solved, drink up. In fact, have a couple extra each day now that we've fixed it.
These people are crazy. I always have a Snickers with my Diet Coke, which cancels out the Snickers calories. I thought everyone knew that. /s