Been drinking about 6 a day for 25 years and have not gotten hooked yet.
I have Diabetes type2 and I used to go to the classes that were held at BACH at Fort Campbell, KY. Our instructor told us if you have to have a small coke, it’s best to drink a regular one and not the diet. He didn’t say anything about it causing cancer.
I used to drink about six a day of diet soda, for probably almost 10 years. Finally stopped drinking them only because the carbonation was upsetting my stomach ... and then started to feel SO so so good, so much better in general, more energy and just peppier, that now I only drink diet soda for special occasions (I can't drink booze ... I'm allergic, I break out in handcuffs). In fact, I now think all fake sugar is BAD FOR THE BODY.
If you're going to eat something sweet, for the love of God make it real: cane sugar, beet sugar, honey. It's starting to dawn on me, looking at the eating ways of elderly people I know who are fit and in excellent health, that a good rule of thumb is this: if it was a food that was around 100 years ago, eat it with confidence if in moderation if need be. If it is a newfangled invention (high fructose corn syrup, margarine, shortening, for example) of a bunch of guys in a lab ... avoid it because your body knows zip about metabolizing it.
Rush, God love him, is the poster boy for how to eat wrong -- he has battled weight for the last three decades. It's always pretty rich when he talks about healthy eating. He knows a lot about diets and what the books say about this and that, fer sher .. .he doesn't know jack about eating smart.