It's the aspartame. You can decide for yourself whether it's poison, but it's definitely the reason many people regard diet sodas as such. EDIT, I guess this

It's the aspartame. You can decide for yourself whether it's poison, but it's definitely the reason many people regard diet sodas as such. EDIT, I guess this should have gone on parent. At any rate, latch, I had the exact same reaction. And this is a man with resources. (Indeed, maybe he drinks some secret power soda and just used Diet Coke to give it a plebian air. Maybe such details are even handled by his blogging software.)