Coked To The Moke - New Zealand Lady Finds Out Darwin Isn't Just A City in Australia

A New Zealand lady found out the hard way that overdoing anything is not particularly good for you.

The Detroit Free Press: Woman dies after downing 2 gallons of Coca-Cola daily

She reportedly drank some 2.2 gallons of the soda every day, AFP notes, a habit that went on for years. Her family called it an "addiction" that resulted in the removal of multiple rotten teeth and the birth of at least one child lacking tooth enamel; her partner said Natasha Harris suffered withdrawal symptoms if she didn't drink the stuff.

The 31-year-old mother of eight died following a cardiac arrhythmia in February 2010, and the coroner called out Coke in his report, which was released today:

"I find that, when all the available evidence is considered, were it not for the consumption of very large quantities of Coke by Natasha Harris, it is unlikely that she would have died when she died and how she died."

2.2 gallons per day? That's more than 8 one liter pop bottles of Coke per day, every day.

To say she had a Coke habit is an understatement.

Moderation in one's diet is a good thing. Anybody that drinks 2.2 gallons of soda per day is nuts, and no law will prevent such stupidity. Heck, even drinking too much water is potentially lethal. As always, don't overdo it.

Note that she died in February 2010. Why the Freep is only picking this up now, three years later is rather weird for it to bubble up. Maybe it's an act of support for New York's Mayor Bloomberg in the current litigation over the soda size ban or something.