Natasha Harris, 30, was stay-at-home mother of eight from New Zealand who suffered from addiction and ultimately died from her excessive consumption. Her drug? Coke. Nope, not the powdery white substance that’s snorted off trendy nightclub toilet seats. Coke as in Coca-Cola — the carbonated soft drink we all know and love. Unfortunately, Harris’ story reveals that Coke … is no joke (I had to, it was right there).
Harris suffered from such an intense addiction to Coca-Cola that if she didn’t get her bubbly fix, her body would shake and literally go into withdrawal.”(She would) go crazy if she ran out … she would get the shakes, be angry, on edge and snappy,” her mother-in-law Vivien Hodgkinson stated.
Eventually most of Harris’ teeth had to be removed because of the irreversible sugar-caused decay. Since Harris continued to chug down her favorite fizzy drink during pregnancy, more than one of her children was born without enamel on their teeth.
According to BBC News, Harris would drink at least 10 liters of Coca-Cola a day. That’s more than 2 gallons. That’s more than 40 serving sizes. That’s more than 2 pounds of sugar. That’s more than 970 milligrams of caffeine. Per. Day. Coroner David Crerar said Harris’ daily intake of Coca-Cola was a “substantial factor” in her death by cardiac arrest. Her heart attack is believed to have been linked specifically to toxic levels of caffeine, low potassium and general crappy health (I should also mentioned she smoked 30 cigarrettes a day).
In a deposition, Harris’ boyfriend Chris Hodgkinson eloquently stated “… she was addicted to coke.” Yeah, I think we can all agree with you on that one Chris.
Soon after his girlfriend’s death, Hodkingson stated that Coca-Cola “should put warning labels” on its products. We here at Heavy decided to design a mock-up of what this warning label would look like:
When asked for a statement, Coca-Cola remained confident that its products are safe:
“We concur with the information shared by the coroner’s office that the grossly excessive ingestion of any food product, including water, over a short period of time with the inadequate consumption of essential nutrients, and the failure to seek appropriate medical intervention when needed, can be dramatically symptomatic …”
Translation: You can die if you do anything as much as Natasha Harris drank Coke.
The moral of this tragic story: Moderation is important…I’m pretty sure we all already knew that.