Woman died from drinking 10 liters of Coke a day.

So maybe I'm a horrible person, but I really have no sympathy for her. You cannot honestly tell me that she didn't know how horrible soda is. It's EVERYWHERE. Dentists, doctors, weight campaigns... They have video of coke getting the rust off of pennies, of how it'll eat an eggshell overnight.

It's like an avid smoker getting lung cancer. You did it to yourself.

I feel bad for her family, but I also think its ridiculous that they didn't step in. That's like if someone were eating nothing but oreos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's OBVIOUSLY unhealthy.

This!

So maybe I'm a horrible person, but I really have no sympathy for her. You cannot honestly tell me that she didn't know how horrible soda is. It's EVERYWHERE. Dentists, doctors, weight campaigns... They have video of coke getting the rust off of pennies, of how it'll eat an eggshell overnight.

It's like an avid smoker getting lung cancer. You did it to yourself.

I feel bad for her family, but I also think its ridiculous that they didn't step in. That's like if someone were eating nothing but oreos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's OBVIOUSLY unhealthy.

I am a former smoker. Been smoke free for 2 months now...and believe me the hardest thing is breaking an additiction. Especially to a drug, which in her case is caffine. You have to want to quit in order to quit. Her family could have stepped in all they wanted, but until you make the decision to quit it won't work. Same concept is used with us here. We WANT to get healthy. In order of this to work you have to want it, 100%.

I understand that it's hard to break an addiction, and that you can be addicted to anything. However, if it was actually caffeine that she was addicted to, then coffee, tea, and any other drink that has caffeine in it could have been used as a weaning source off of coke. If she was so addicted that she had withdrawals because of it, it was obviously affecting her in a bad way.
I just still have no sympathy for a woman who essentially killed herself. And I think its stupid as hell that she did it, and that her family continued to allow her to have coke in the house.

As an adult she didn't need permisson to keep coke in her house.
Saying her family should have stepped in or stopped her is just wrong. Nothing her family did would have helped her unless she wanted to help herself. They could have dragged her to a million doctors, they could have tipped out the coke every day, they could have got counseling/psychology for her addictions. They could have yelled and screamed until the cows came home, they could have begged and pleaded. None of it would have made a difference.

I know because I have tried all of them to try to get my husband over his alcohol, gambling and smoking and in 5 years not once have I managed to make a difference, not even leaving made a difference. The person with an addiction needs to want to change before change can happen.

It's a true story, unfortunately. I was living in the same city in NZ as her when she died and it was reported in all the papers and the stuff news website throughout NZ. It's appeared on all your US websites now that the court case is over. I feel bad for her. It's a very cold southern city to live in, and I bet she was depressed and stuck at home with the kids and that's why she had such a bad caffeine addiction. The only thing I don't understand is how she could have possibly managed to drink 10litres a day. That's an awful lot... the most I've ever managed to get through in a day is one of those 2.25Ltr bottles, and that made me feel pretty ill and unable to drink any more!

Another thing - I believe the coke recipe in NZ is a bit different from what you have in the US. This is because NZ coke is manufactured nearer in Auckland, NZ or imported from Australia and they change the recipe slightly for different regions depending on local tastes and ingredients - NZ coke is made with cane sugar - yours is made with beet sugar, so is more surupy? There are more lax limits on the amount of caffeine that can be added to soda drinks in NZ than in the US (the last I heard at least - and she died back in 2010 anyway), so all the soda drinks here are a tad more addictive than elsewhere. Just saying.

10 L of coke a day is RIDICULOUS. Poor lady.

From what I remember reading from the article about this story on the BBC website the coroner said something along the lines of:
Were it not for the very large consumption of cola it is unlikely she would have died when and how she did.
However the coroner couldn't state 100% that the cola caused her heart attack.
If she smoked 30 cigarettes per day, didn't eat very well and drank 10litres of coke it's no wonder she had a heart attack just because of the strain her body was under - she must have had nearly every deficiency going!

It is a shame but it's not going to stop me drinking cola. Just like eating McDonalds or pizza are linked to obesity I'm not going to stop eating them. It's all about moderation which obviously this woman wasn't able to command.

His mother, Vivienne Hodgkinson, told the inquest all Ms Harris' teeth were rotten and had been pulled out. Some of her children were born without enamel on their teeth.

Raise your hand if you believe that infants are born with teeth.

my cousin was born with 4 teeth, unusual, yes, but it does happen.

You can die from drinking too much WATER in one day.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/water-intoxication.htm

Likely the soda itself had nothing to do with it and was more the fluid intake that did her in.

His mother, Vivienne Hodgkinson, told the inquest all Ms Harris' teeth were rotten and had been pulled out. Some of her children were born without enamel on their teeth.

Raise your hand if you believe that infants are born with teeth.

Exactly

She died from Hypokalemia, or severe Potassium deficiency. In her case it was caused be excess Potassium loss from the body rather than a dietary deficiency. It is believed that in these instances the Potassium loss is caused by the diuretic effect of caffeine, and high intake of fluids, although diarrhea (as her partner mentioned), caused by heavy fructose intake, is also believed to be a contributing factor.

So basically, nothing here points to colas per se, as being unhealthy. The same could have happened from too much coffee, or even too much water for that matter. This was more of a dependency issue than a dietary issue.

Damn if I drank 2.5 gallons of milk a day, I'd die too.......................of gastrointesinal issues.:laugh:

While I'm sure the soda played a significant part in her health, there were other factors that attributed to her demise.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

That is more than 40 8oz cups of coke in a day.

It really bothers me to read how many people feel no pity. No one is perfect, we all have something that someone else will not agree with. Condemning someone can lead a person to hide their addiction and not get help.

We use Coke at the scene of an accident to clean the blood off of the road, It corrodes pennies, removes grease stains from clothing and fabric, removes blood stains from clothes, cleans oil stains from a garage floor, you can clean car battery terminals by pouring a small amount of Coke over each one, it will strip paint off metal furniture, etc.

Calling BS on this one.

read a little closer. she was living off the calories from the coke. she was barely eating.

Read it, reread it. I didn't see anything that said she was barely eating. Only that she had hypokalemia and had lost er teeth.