Is Diet Coke really bad for you?

As most of you know I am currently in Portland, Maine visiting my best friend M.M. and her girl friend L.M. I am actually not a bad house guest. I sleep until after they leave for work, get up, shower and get out the door without bothering anything in the house. I am gone until they get back from work. We have dinner, I play on the internet, and go to bed. That's been my schedule since I got here on Sunday. Except for one little request. I asked M.M. to get me some Caffeine Free Diet Coke in the can.

It's been the only thing I have asked for since I got here and M.M. was happy to oblige. L.M. on the other hand not so much. She is convinced that Diet Coke is the devil and that I am currently working on a brain tumor the size of Rhode Island. Now, I have to admit that I drink a lot of it. For the past three years there have been very few times that any of my friends have seen me without a Diet Coke. Usually it's in fountain form since that is my favorite. The place of purchase varies depending on who's selling it cheaper. McDonald's. 7-11. Jack In the Box. I like me some Diet Coke.

Since being in Maine, although I have had a fair amount not nearly as much as I usually drink. But this doesn't appease L.M. She scorns and lectures whenever I open a can. She stopped at Wendy's yesterday so that I could buy something to drink and shrieked when the cashier gave me my Biggie size Diet Coke. I finally had to ask her to drive a way since both the Cashier and I were getting embarrassed.

Now my real question is: Should she really make a big deal about it? She's been known to smoke one or two cigarettes. More than one or two on Monday. We had a whole conversation tonight about the drugs she's done in the past. My standard response whenever anyone makes a big deal about my Diet Coke is that I could always be doing heroin, or coke, or crystal meth, or crack. You get the idea. Granted too much of anything is not good for you. But there are far worse things I could be doing.

For today, I am not willing to give it up. It makes me happy and I like it. And think how fat I'd be if I had the same amount of soda in the sugared variety. I'd weigh 8,000 pounds. So how do I convince her that it's okay for me to drink Diet Coke and that she should really not make such a big deal about it? Or do I just ignore her until Tuesday when I leave for New York?