JOE TRIPPI REINVENTS CAMPAIGNING (TNR on Dean Campaign)

diet coke (aspartame toxicity) use by candidates: Murray 1.30.4 Dean sips Diet Coke: Bush, Gore, Clinton, Edwards, Clark, Dean, Trippi: diet soda (aspartame) toxicity issue: Lyons: Murray 1.16.4 http://www.rutlandherald.com/hdean/74353 Dean regales Democrats at fund-raiser in Barre November 9, 2003 By CLAUDE R. MARX Vermont Press Bureau claude.marx@rutlandherald.com; claude.marx@timesargus.com BARRE - Less than a year before election day and about two months before the first delegates are picked, former Gov. Howard Dean brought his presidential campaign here Saturday to reminisce about his early political career and ask for help in getting a new job.... Even as he sipped a Diet Coke while waiting to be introduced by state Chairman Scudder Parker, he signed name tags and campaign literature.... From: "Rich Murray" To: Cc: ; ; Subject: Dean, Trippi, diet soda toxicity issue Date: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:51 PM http://www.sevendaysvt.com/-thisweek/col/track.html 01.07.04 diet coke (aspartame toxicity) use by candidates: Murray 1.30.4 Peter Freyne insidetrackvt@aol.com Also on the food and beverage front, Sen. Ginny Lyons has introduced S.241. It proposes to "help prevent childhood obesity by directing the state board of education to adopt nutrition standards for public schools; and by defining physical education as a daily program of moderate to vigorous physical activity." The bite in Skinny Ginny's bill comes in the last sentence: "Only food and beverages which meet the nutritional standards adopted by the state board may be sold on school grounds between one half hour before the start of the school day and one half hour after the end of the school day." Can you say bye-bye, Coca-Cola? *************************************************************************** Bush, Gore, Clinton, Edwards, Clark, Dean, Trippi: diet soda (aspartame) toxicity issue: Lyons: Murray 1.13.4 Jan 11 2004 Hello Senator Virginia "Ginny" Lyons, About a dozen activists on the world Net competently alert people about aspartame toxicity. Famous users include Bush, Clinton, Gore, John Edwards, Clark, Dean, and Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi (widely noted as a very heavy user of Diet Pepsi). Can you help me find contact people who can in turn alert these key players to the personal and public hazards? Surely, this deserves to be put in the limelight as a political issue. Thanks, Rich Murray Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@att.net 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-986-9103 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1037 Joe Trippi, heavy user of Diet Pepsi (aspartame toxicity), Dean's campaign manager: Murray 11.16.3 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1016 President Bush & formaldehyde (aspartame) toxicity: Ramazzini Foundation carcinogenicity results Dec 2002: Soffritti: Murray 8.3.3 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/927 Rumsfeld, 1977 head of Searle Corp., got aspartame FDA approval: Turner: Murray 12.23.2 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1039 three-page review: aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde) toxicity: Murray 1.11.4 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages for 1047 posts in a public searchable archive, with 125 members http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1026 brief aspartame review: formaldehyde toxicity: Murray 9.11.3 rmforall http://google.com gives 221,000 websites for "aspartame", with the top 9 of 10 listings being anti-aspartame, while http://groups.google.com finds on 700 MB of posts from 20 years of Usenet groups, 83,800 posts, the top 10 being anti-aspartame. http://news.google.com 28 recent aspartame items from 4500 sources. http://www.AllTheWeb.com gives 291,700, the top 7 of 10 being leading and very well informed volunteer anti-aspartame sites. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed lists 745 aspartame items. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/989 On April 10 2003, the European Union Parliament voted 440 to 20 to approve sucralose, limit cyclamates & reevaluate aspartame & stevia: Murray 4.12.3 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1025 aspartame & formaldehyde toxicity: Murray 9.9.3 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages 756 members 16,381 posts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1024 aspartame review: methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid toxicity: Murray 9.5.3 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/910 formaldehyde & formic acid from methanol in aspartame: Murray: 12.9.2 rmforall It is certain that high levels of aspartame use, above 2 liters daily for months and years, must lead to chronic formaldehyde-formic acid toxicity, since 11% of aspartame (1,120 mg in 2L diet soda, 5.6 12-oz cans) is 123 mg methanol (wood alcohol), immediately released into the body after drinking (unlike the large levels of methanol locked up in molecules inside many fruits), then quickly transformed into formaldehyde, which in turn becomes formic acid, both of which in time are partially eliminated as carbon dioxide and water. However, about 30% of the methanol remains in the body as cumulative durable toxic metabolites of formaldehyde and formic acid-- 37 mg daily, a gram every month. [Oppermann JA, Muldoon E, Ranney RE. Metabolism of aspartame in monkeys. J. Nutrition. 1973 Oct; 103(10): 1454-1459.] If 10% of the methanol is retained as formaldehyde, that would give 12 mg daily formaldehyde accumulation, about 60 times more than the 0.2 mg from 10% retention of the 2 mg EPA daily limit for formaldehyde in water. This long-term low-level chronic toxic exposure leads to typical patterns of increasingly severe complex symptoms, starting with headache, fatigue, joint pain, irritability, memory loss, and leading to vision and eye problems, and even seizures. In many cases there is addiction. Probably there are immune system disorders, with a hypersensitivity to these toxins and other chemicals. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/872 immune system reactions due to formaldehyde from the 11% methanol in aspartame: Thrasher: Tephly: Monte: Murray 9.27.2 rmforall Many scientific studies and case histories report: * headaches * many body and joint pains (or burning, tingling, tremors, twitching, spasms, cramps, stiffness, numbness, difficulty swallowing) * fever, fatigue, swollen glands * "mind fog", "feel unreal", poor memory, confusion, anxiety, irritability, depression, mania, insomnia, dizziness, slurred speech, sexual problems, poor vision, hearing (deafness, tinnitus), or taste * red face, itching, rashes, hair loss, burning eyes or throat, dry eyes or mouth, mouth sores, burning tongue * obesity, bloating, edema, anorexia, poor appetite or excessive hunger or thirst * breathing problems, shortness of breath * nausea, diarrhea or constipation * coldness * sweating * racing heart, low or high blood pressure, erratic blood sugar levels *hypothryroidism or hyperthyroidism * seizures * birth defects * brain cancers * addiction * aggrivates diabetes, autism, allergies, lupus, ADHD, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, multiple sclerosis, and interstitial cystitis (bladder pain). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/782 Smith, Terpening, Schmidt, Gums: full text: aspartame, MSG, fibromyalgia 1.17.2 rmforall Jerry D Smith, Chris M Terpening, Siegfried OF Schmidt, and John G Gums. Relief of fibromyalgia symptoms following discontinuation of dietary excitotoxins. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2001; 35(6): 702-706. Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Gainesville, FL, USA. "Four patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome for two to 17 years are described. All had undergone multiple treatment modalities with limited success. All had complete, or nearly complete, resolution of their symptoms within months after eliminating monosodium glutamate (MSG) or MSG plus aspartame from their diet. All patients were women with multiple comorbidities prior to elimination of MSG. All have had recurrence of symptoms whenever MSG is ingested." Siegfried O. Schmidt, MD Asst. Clinical Prof. 352-376-5071 siggy@shands.ufl.edu Community Health and Family Medicine, U. Florida, Gainesville, FL Shands Hospital West Oak Clinic Gainesville, FL 32608-3629 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/909 testable theory of MCS type diseases, vicious cycle of nitric oxide & peroxynitrite: MSG: formaldehyde-methanol-aspartame: Martin L. Pall: Murray: 12.9.2 rmforall Pall ML. NMDA sensitization and stimulation by peroxynitrite, nitric oxide, and organic solvents as the mechanism of chemical sensitivity in multiple chemical sensitivity. FASEB J. 2002 Sep; 16(11): 1407-17. [162 references] School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-4660 509-335-1246 martin_pall@wsu.edu http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_embryo_toxicity.html full text Thrasher JD, Kilburn KH. Embryo toxicity and teratogenicity of formaldehyde. Arch Environ Health. 2001 Jul-Aug; 56(4): 300-11. [100 references] Sam-1 Trust, Alto 88312, New Mexico, USA. (505) 336-8317 toxicology@drthrasher.org http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_1990.html full text Jack Dwayne Thrasher, Alan Broughton, Roberta Madison. Immune activation and autoantibodies in humans with long-term inhalation exposure to formaldehyde. Archives of Environmental Health. 1990; 45: 217-223. "Immune activation, autoantibodies, and anti-HCHO-HSA antibodies are associated with long-term formaldehyde inhalation." PMID: 2400243 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/925 aspartame puts formaldehyde adducts into tissues, Part 1/2 full text, Trocho & Alemany 6.26.98: Murray 12.22.2 Trocho C, Pardo R, Rafecas I, Virgili J, Remesar X, Fernandez-Lopez JA, Alemany M ["Trok-ho"]. Formaldehyde derived from dietary aspartame binds to tissue components in vivo. Life Sci 1998 Jun 26; 63(5): 337-49. Departament de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. Maria Alemany, PhD (male) alemany@porthos.bio.ub.es http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/622 Murray: Gold: Koehler: Walton: Van Den Eeden: Leon: aspartame toxicity 6.4.1 rmforall four double-blind studies http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/623 Murray: Simmons: Gold: Schiffman: Spiers: aspartame toxicity 6.4.1 rmforall two double-blind studies http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1045 http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific Committee on Food re aspartame (12.4.2): 59 pages, 230 references http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/957 safety of aspartame Part 1/2 12.4.2: EC HCPD-G SCF: Murray 1.12.3 rmforall EU Scientific Committee on Food, a whitewash http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1016 President Bush & formaldehyde (aspartame) toxicity: Ramazzini Foundation carcinogenicity results Dec 2002: Soffritti: Murray 8.3.3 rmforall p. 88 "The sweetening agent aspartame hydrolyzes in the gastrointestinal tract to become free methyl alcohol, which is metabolized in the liver to formaldehyde, formic acid, and CO2. (11)" Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Lambertin L, Lauriola M, Padovani M, Maltoni C. Results of long-term experimental studies on the carcinogenicity of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in rats. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002 Dec; 982: 87-105. Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation for Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. crcfr@tin.it "Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were found to produce an increase in total malignant tumors in the treated groups and showed specific carcinogenic effects on various organs and tissues." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/934 24 recent formaldehyde toxicity [Comet assay] reports: Murray 12.31.2 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/935 Comet assay finds DNA damage from sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin in mice: Sasaki YF & Tsuda S Aug 2002: Murray 1.1.3 rmforall [Also borderline evidence, in this pilot study of 39 food additives, using test groups of 4 mice, for DNA damage from for stomach, colon, liver, bladder, and lung 3 hr after oral dose of 2000 mg/kg aspartame-- a very high dose.] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/961 genotoxins, Comet assay in mice: Ace-K, stevia fine; aspartame poor; sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin bad: Y.F. Sasaki Aug 2002: Murray 1.27.3 rmforall Sasaki YF, Kawaguchi S, Kamaya A, Ohshita M, Kabasawa K, Iwama K, Taniguchi K, Tsuda S. The comet assay with 8 mouse organs: results with 39 currently used food additives. Mutat Res. 2002 Aug 26; 519(1-2): 103-19. PMID: 12160896 http://www.dorway.com/tldaddic.html 5-page review Roberts HJ Aspartame (NutraSweet) addiction. Townsend Letter 2000 Jan; HJRobertsMD@aol.com http://www.sunsentpress.com/ sunsentpress@aol.com Sunshine Sentinel Press P.O.Box 17799 West Palm Beach, FL 33416 800-814-9800 561-588-7628 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/669 Roberts' 1038-page medical text "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" published May 30 2001 $ 60.00 postpaid data from 1200 cases, over 600 references from standard medical research, also available at http://www.amazon.com http://www.HolisticMed.com/aspartame Aspartame Toxicity Information Center Mark D. Gold 603-225-2100 mgold@holisticmed.com 12 East Side Drive #2-18 Concord, NH 03301 http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/abuse/methanol.html "Scientific Abuse in Aspartame Research" http://www.dorway.com over 12,000 print pages Mission-Possible-USA Betty Martini 770-242-2599 Bettym19@mindspring.com http://www.dorway.com/doctors.txt What many informed doctors are saying/have said about aspartame http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/870 Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health 1984: Monte: Murray 9.23.2 rmforall Dr. Woodrow C. Monte. Aspartame: methanol, and the public health. Journal of Applied Nutrition. 1984; 36 (1): 42-54. (62 references). Professsor of Food Science [retired 1992] Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287 woodymonte@xtra.co.nz The methanol from 2 L of diet soda, 5.6 12-oz cans, 20 mg/can, is 112 mg, 10% of the aspartame. The EPA limit for water is 7.8 mg daily for methanol (wood alcohol), a deadly cumulative poison. Many users drink 1-2 L daily. The reported symptoms are entirely consistent with chronic methanol toxicity. (Fresh orange juice has 34 mg/L, but, like all juices, has 16 times more ethanol, which strongly protects against methanol.) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/857 RTM: www.dorway.com: original documents and long reviews of flaws in aspartame toxicity research 7.31.2 rmforall http://www.dorway.com/upipart1.txt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/262 aspartame expose 96K Oct 1987 Part 1/3: Gregory Gordon, UPI reporter: Murray 7.10.0 rmforall http://www.dorway.com/enclosur.html http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/53 aspartame history Part 1/4 1964-1976: Gold: Murray 11.6.9: rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/927 Rumsfeld, 1977 head of Searle Corp., got aspartame FDA approval: Turner: Murray 12.23.2 rmforall http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/928 revolving door, Monsanto, FDA, EPA: NGIN: Murray 12.23.2 rmforall *************************************************************** [ http://www.mcall.com/ letters@mcall.com news@mcall.com 101 North 6th St. Allentown, PA 18101 (610) 820-6500 frank.devlin@mcall.com 610-778-2235 ] http://www.mcall.com/features/all-hhtjan09.story From The Morning Call Mainlining Diet Coke By Frank Devlin of The Morning Call January 9, 2004 Believe it or not — drinking Diet Coke makes dreams come true. Don't believe it? Then how do you explain the way Diet Coke keeps popping up as the celebrity soda of choice? Surely there's some link between success and this caffeinated, chemically sweetened serum. Take Harvey Weinstein, head of the Miramax Pictures movie studio. U.S. News and World Report reports Weinstein has a limousine ''outfitted with video screens and seat pockets stocked with Diet Coke.'' Or presidential candidate John Edwards, who would ''chain-drink Diet Cokes'' when he was a hotshot personal injury lawyer, according to the Charlotte Observer, and who's drinking about 10 cans a day now on the campaign trail. Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig are also reported to be devoted Diet Coke drinkers. Why, Mankind himself drinks Diet Coke — that's Mankind the retired professional wrestler, not all of humanity, of course. And it did wonders for him. Once upon a time, Mankind, aka Mick Foley, was just your average 310-pound brute missing front teeth and pining for a post-wrestling career. Naturally, he decided to try his hand at writing serious fiction. So, according to Entertainment Weekly, he pumped himself full of Diet Coke and, voila, cranked out a fine novel. If Foley's ''Tietam Brown'' still doesn't convince you of Diet Coke's powers, then consider Bill James. James was a baseball fan who wrote books of statistical analysis that, despite their brilliance, for some reason failed to influence the way Major League Baseball teams made personnel decisions. But now, more and more baseball bigwigs heed his theories. The Boston Red Sox even hired him as an adviser. James drinks Diet Coke, too. Lots of it. In a recent New Yorker profile, he was quoted as saying — tellingly, if not profoundly — ''Would you get us a Diet Coke from the refrigerator over there?'' But if you really want insight into the Diet Coke equation, consider Columbia University physicist Janet Conrad, a leader in the field of neutrino studies. . This scientist, when not teaching at an Ivy League school, conducts experiments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois that could change our very understanding of the universe's building blocks. She says further study of neutrinos — subatomic particles that require tremendous effort to track — could even ''open the door to the idea of extra dimensions.'' Her Diet Coke connection? ''It's certainly made me a more effective person,'' says Conrad, who starts each day with two 12-ounce cans of the caffeinated drink (45 milligrams per can, about one-fourth the caffeine, per ounce, in coffee) and goes on to drink about six more cans before she turns in. That's on a day that's not particularly challenging, she says. On challenging days she drinks much, much more. ''Part of what helps me keep my momentum going is the Diet Coke. I mean that quite seriously,'' she says. ''I need to be very sharp to help me get things done. When I give a talk and I am excited about something, the audience gets excited. If I'm sort of flat, then the audience will be flat.'' Conrad, 39, says her diet-soda habit dates to high school, when she was stuck on saccharine-sweetened Tab. Why Tab? ''It was probably what was in the machine at the hardware store where I worked'' in Wooster, Ohio, she says. Conrad says she lamented the replacement of saccharine — thought to cause cancer — with aspartame, marketed as Nutrasweet and Equal, in the 1980s. Without the saccharine, she didn't like Tab's taste anymore. In college, she and a friend searched for aspartame soda they could stomach. They eventually decided on Diet Coke. Conrad was such a devotee of saccharine-sweetened Tab that she honors its memory by rotating possession of a single, unopened bottle with the same college friend. ''We actually have this bottle of Tab, which is the last bottle of non-Nutrasweet Tab in the world. We give it back and forth to each other. She gave it to me for my wedding. She has it now. I think I gave her the bottle when she bought her house.'' Nevertheless, Conrad grew to love Diet Coke. ''I'm very much addicted,'' she says. Conrad prefers it from a can. ''What's really sad is I prefer it warm,'' she says. ''It sort of evolved out of laziness, out of not bothering to put it in the refrigerator.'' Dave DeCecco, spokesman for Pepsi-Cola North America, says his company doesn't keep track of which soft drinks celebrities and other notables are reportedly drinking. ''It's nice'' if someone publicly consumes your product for free, the way Edwards, et al., are doing for Diet Coke, DeCecco says. But when it comes to the diet soda war, he says, sales are what matters, and Diet Pepsi's have been growing faster than Diet Coke's since 2000. Diet Coke is still a bigger seller, though, with about 71/2 percent of the soft-drink market, compared to 51/2 percent for Diet Pepsi, according to Beverage Digest magazine. Sounding unconcerned with the notion that Diet Coke has a higher media profile than his brand, DeCecco even questions the premise, which, he says, seems to be a ''a pretty unscientific survey.'' But it's all there on the computer screen when you search the LexisNexis media database (nexis.com). A recent Nexis power search for news pieces containing the words Diet Coke over a recent 60-day period produced 527 hits, including: An interview with Jimmy Carter, who was talking about his new book and ''sipping on a Diet Coke'' (Newsday, Dec. 1). An article about a North Carolina death row inmate whose last meal included, curiously, a non-fattening Diet Coke (Associated Press, Nov. 7). A basketball column pointing out that Houston Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy ''drinks Diet Coke as if it's water'' (The Seattle Times, Oct. 9). The same search parameters for Diet Pepsi produced only 137 hits, including one article that includes a celebrity dis of Diet Pepsi. An Oct. 30, 2003, Phoenix New Times profile of ''Legally Blonde'' author Amanda Brown has Brown's assistant seeking a Diet Coke for Brown before a TV interview. But only Diet Pepsi is available. Brown's assistant says no thanks, Brown will settle for water. Conrad says Diet Pepsi is too sweet. Diet Coke drinker Ericka Kirkpatrick of Coopersburg, spotted in Bethlehem recently holding a 20-ounce bottle, says it's hard to explain why she doesn't like Diet Pepsi's taste. ''It's got a bite,'' she says. All she knows is ''if I send someone out to get me a Diet Coke and they come back with a Diet Pepsi I will not drink it. I'll go back out myself and get a Diet Coke.'' ''I'm very picky,'' the 29-year-old real estate agent says. Diet Coke fan and pop culture pundit Michael Musto of the Village Voice refrained from dissing Diet Pepsi. However, he says in an e-mail, he can ''personally vouch for and in fact have mentioned it a few times myself'' in Village Voice columns. ''It just seems to be the sensible thing to drink'' at the entertainment industry parties he covers, he says. ''It's tasty, gives you a rush, and keeps the pounds off. No, it's not exactly a healthy treat, but at least it's not booze.'' Musto says he doesn't know why Diet Coke seems to hold sway with celebrities. But Coca-Cola spokesman Mart Martin says Diet Coke's cache is something Coca-Cola, which introduced the drink in 1982 with a gala party at Radio City Music hall, has been aware of for years. ''It has achieved sort of an icon status,'' he says. ''You see Diet Coke popping up a lot in photo spreads in magazines'' that feature celebrities, he says. ''Those are not product placements'' paid for by Coca-Cola, he says. ''That is, in fact, what they are drinking.'' ''There's a certain stylishness'' to Diet Coke, Martin claims, crediting the ''clean look'' of the silver can. Conrad says she drinks soda instead of coffee because, with less caffeine, ''it gives you a lower and steadier dose of the thing that keeps you going.'' Kirkpatrick says she switched from caffe mochas to Diet Coke after graduating from Penn State — where ''they had a great cafe that made the best mochas'' — and returning home to the Lehigh Valley. ''Around here,'' she laments, ''they don't make great mochas.'' She drinks four or five 20-ounce bottles of Diet Coke a day. Anita Hirsch, nutritionist at the Lehigh Valley Racquet and Fitness Centers, says the caffeine from four 20-ounce Diet Coke bottles —300 milligrams — shouldn't cause health problems for healthy people who aren't pregnant. Tina Amato, a registered dietitian at the Allentown Health Bureau, agrees. But both say there are concerns other than caffeine content about drinking massive cola quantities. Hirsch says research indicates aspartame, used throughout the diet soft drink industry, ''could be a migraine trigger'' in some people. Amato says diet soda may be replacing healthy beverage choices such as low-fat milk and water. And the phosphoric acid in diet soda ''causes calcium depletion,'' Amato says. ''We all need more calcium.'' Diet soda ''has no nutritional value whatsoever,'' she notes, advising that people drink no more than two a day. Kirkpatrick says she's aware of the calcium problem and isn't happy about drinking so much Diet Coke. But she stopped making New Year's resolutions to kick it a couple of years ago, she says. ''Some people have a gambling problem,'' she says. ''I have a Diet Coke problem.'' She gets cranky if she stops drinking Diet Coke, she says. She figures she'll finally give it up if she gets pregnant some day. Conrad says she doesn't worry much about Diet Coke's possible health risks. She does believe that ''feeding yourself one thing for long periods of time isn't good. The human body is made for a varied diet.'' But she makes an exception for Diet Coke. frank.devlin@mcall.com 610-778-2235 Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call ***********************************************************

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