<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know that every Diet Coke takes 10 minutes off your life?\u201d<\/em> my daughters asked.<\/p>\n

Their campaign to break my habit reminded me of myself at their age, on a crusade to get my mother to stop smoking three packs a day. My daughters never tried to flush my Diet Coke down the toilet, as I often did with my mother\u2019s cigarettes, but their worry was the same. And although I generally only quaffed a can a day and did not poison them with second-hand backwash, I was the same as my mother: I ignored the concerns of my loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen minutes!\u201d<\/em> I replied.\u00a0“So what?”<\/em><\/p>\n

I did a quick calculation. If I drank one Diet Coke a day for 40 years to come, that would mean 101 days off of my life. Double that, to allow for hyper-caffeinated days plus all the diet soda I\u2019d imbibed since adolescence till this moment of truth with my<\/em> adolescents. We were still only talking about 202 days off the long life I envisioned ahead of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s way less than a year!\u201d<\/em> I told my daughters. “It’s worth it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Years passed as I merrily sipped away. Then I was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of uterine cancer. Different calculations preoccupied me: Would I see my daughters marry? Get to babysit their children? Make it to my youngest daughter\u2019s graduation from college in a few months? How long till Christmas? I craved every one of those 202 days I\u2019d been so blithely willing to forfeit. Every ten minutes might help me reach some important milestone.<\/p>\n

I swore off Diet Coke the day I was diagnosed, and haven\u2019t touched a drop since. It\u2019s not that I think it caused my cancer (\u201cIf only figuring out what causes cancer were that easy!\u201d<\/em> said my Kaiser nutritionist). Since Diet Coke was about my only vice if you don\u2019t count chocolate, I spend very little time blaming myself. Cancer happens. To a lot of us.<\/p>\n

Since those dark early days, I\u2019ve learned that my cancer was detected at the earliest possible stage, and that my prognosis is excellent. I should have many, many good years ahead of me. But they\u2019ll be free of Diet Coke.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my pledge to my daughters. I can\u2019t promise them that I won\u2019t eventually succumb\u2014to something, if not cancer. But I can<\/em> promise to give up Diet Coke.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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