I think the reason he lived is that the Diet Coke is sort of sending him through a form of living mummification tbh

Diet Coke tastes good, and when I switched to normal Coke I started gaining weight

as a wise man put it, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke"

It tastes the same as regular Coke as well as all the Coke knockoffs and similar products (except Dr Pepper which tastes even more disgusting but at least it's different). The whole debate reminds me of people arguing about which brand of bottled water tastes best. Mfer it all tastes like water.