Downing the no-calorie beverages daily may greatly increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Darren Jones wants to check himself into rehab for an unusual “addiction.” He says he’s so hooked on Diet Coke that he downs 18 cans a day and can’t leave home without it. Judging by his photos in The Daily Mail, all that diet soda hasn’t helped him control his weight, which was edging toward 500 pounds when the pictures were taken.

He’s not alone. Former president Bill Clinton, Victoria Beckham, Elton John and movie moguls Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Katzenberg have all admitted to a Diet Coke habit, according to the New York Times.

And then there’s Elisa Zied, a high profile registered dietician with no discernible weight problem and three books and numerous TV appearances to her credit. Last year she confessed to a Diet Coke addiction on Twitter, a deliberate strategy – she said she hoped that “putting it out there would make me accountable”.

Replace soda with these healthy smoothie recipes.

The Addiction Question

Surveys show that people who drink these beverages rarely stop with just one. In fact, the typical consumer of diet sodas downs an average of more than 26 ounces per day, and 3 percent of diet-soda drinkers have at least four per day. But are hardcore diet soda fiends actually hooked?

If there’s anything in diet colas that could be addicting, the most likely suspect is caffeine (although many diet soda guzzlers prefer caffeine-free colas). Besides, comparisons with coffee show that cola can’t deliver the caffeine kick equal to a cup of java. An 8-ounce Diet Coke gives you a measly 47 milligrams of caffeine, compared to 133 in a cup of ordinary coffee and 320 in a Starbucks’ grande.

Learn about the most addictive prescription drugs on the market.

Insights from Brain Science

Another plausible explanation is habit: diet soda becomes part of daily rituals – a break from work, lunch, watching the news, you name it.  And sipping a zero-calorie beverage may not seem to have downside to curb the urge to overindulge.

More persuasive, perhaps, is the notion that artificial sweeteners trigger the brain’s reward system. In a study of women who drank water sweetened with sugar or Splenda, the women couldn’t taste the difference between the two, but functional MRIs showed that the brain’s reward system responded more strongly to sugar.

Study author Martin P. Paulus, MD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego suggests that diet soda might be addicting because “artificial sweeteners have positive reinforcing effects – meaning humans will work for it, like for other foods, alcohol and even drugs of abuse.”

Is diet soda making you fat?

Is Diet Soda Harmful?

Beyond the addiction issue, diet soda has been linked to increased rates of heart attack and stroke, kidney problems, preterm deliveries, and, yes, weight gain. While not yet carved in scientific stone, the emerging evidence is a bit disturbing. Here’s a rundown:

• Heart Attack and Stroke: Drinking diet sodas daily may increase the risks for heart attack and stroke and other vascular events by 43 percent, but no such threat exists with regular soft drinks or with less frequent consumption of diet soda. These results come from a study including more than 2,500 adults published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on January 30, 2012. So far, no one knows what it is about diet sodas that could explain the added risk.

• Kidney Trouble: In 2009, researchers at Harvard found that drinking two or more diet sodas daily could lead to a 30 percent drop in a measure of kidney function in women. No accelerated decline was seen in women who drank less than two diet sodas daily. The drop held true even after the researchers accounted for age, high blood pressure, diabetes and physical activity.

Read more facts about diet soda.

• Preterm Delivery: A Danish study including more than 59,000 women found a link between drinking one or more diet sodas daily and a 38 percent increase in the risk of giving birth to preterm babies; the risk was 78 percent higher among pregnant women who drank four or more diet sodas daily. No such risk was seen with regular soda.

• Weight Gain: Wouldn’t it be ironic if instead of helping you lose weight, diet sodas had the opposite effect? A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that compared to those who drank no diet sodas, study participants who did had a 70 percent greater increase in waist circumference; worse, drinking two or more diet sodas daily led to ballooning waist circumference that was 500 percent greater than those who drank none. This doesn’t prove that diet soda is to blame since the study was observational – it could be that participants began gaining weight and then started drinking diet sodas.

This is interesting, but let’s see what they actually do with it!

Government officials are set today to announce a record $26 billion settlement with the five biggest banks related to foreclosure abuses including “robo-signing” of documents.

The Department of Justice will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. to announce an agreement in principal. At least 42 states have agreed to sign onto the agreement. New York and California were among the last holdouts and it wasn’t clear whether they will join or sue separately.

For the past year, President Obama has advocated for a mortgage relief plan with the five biggest mortgage servicers, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial, to settle an investigation of foreclosure abuses. Evidence of robo-signing foreclosure documents began to show in 2010 during a record national wave of foreclosed homes.

Earlier versions of the deal would give about 1 million U.S. homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages relief of as much as $20,000 in principal owed, and those who were foreclosed would receive several thousand dollars. The deal would apply to loans that were not sold to mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Several states had previously agreed to a $19 billion settlement that would be used for national mortgage relief. The deal was reported to designate $17 billion to pay for principal reductions and other relief for up to one million borrowers behind in payments but owe more than their houses are currently worth, the New York Times reported.

However, those settlements would change depending on the number of homeowners between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011 who accepted the offer. Homeowners who participate in the settlement would still have the right to sue the banks, according to Patrick Madigan, the Iowa assistant attorney general, the New York Times reported.

California and New York had expressed interest in joining the deal but were the last major holdouts. It was clear late Monday if the states would sign the settlement.

New York State’s attorney general Eric Schneiderman and California’s attorney general Kamala Harris had previously said the settlement terms were not adequate. Schneiderman reportedly hopes to investigate the root causes of the financial collapse and Harris wants stronger measures to benefit individual homeowners.

Homeowner advocates had also criticized the reported deal, saying it would provide little relief to the most troubled homeowners.

“What the country and the housing market needs is a bold and broad fix – not broad immunity for banks’ criminal behavior,” George Goehl, executive director of community organizing group National People’s Action, said in a statement. “Any settlement that is just about robo-signing should only release claims on robo-signing and nothing more. It should fix the servicing system and it should provide real relief to struggling underwater homeowners and those who have lost their homes.”

The housing market has remained in a slump across the nation. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index through November showed home values fell 3.7 percent from the previous year.

In January, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee announced it expects to keep federal funds rate at zero to 1/4 percent at least through 2014, saying the housing sector remained depressed. The federal funds rate is the rate at which banks lend to each other overnight.

A truly unique and interesting image.

There are few times of year when I look forward to my daily commute more than I do around Halloween. There’s just something about watching Marge Simpson check her BlackBerry on the subway or seeing a full-grown man walk into a downtown office building in a banana suit that is seriously entertaining.

But, in the course of my people-watching over the next few days, I also know there will be times when I feel seriously uncomfortable; feelings brought on by getups that will make me wonder, “Where does this lady work that she doesn’t have to wear pants?” or think, “Yikes. That is one brave man, right there.”

Because inevitably, when people are given the option to ditch business casual for a day and dress instead as whatever they want, there will be some who take it a little too far.

Halloween is fun, and if you have an office that is cool enough to celebrate it, then by all means, dress up! Just remember the golden rule of office revelry: “There is a time and a place for everything.”

Here, guidelines to help you figure out what’s work appropriate and what you should save for the weekend. (Because after high school, it’s not cool to be the girl who gets sent home to put more clothes on.)

1. Be a nurse, not a sexy nurse. It seems that the manufacturers of Halloween costumes for adult women follow the same predictable formula year after year: Take an occupation, animal or Disney princess and slap the word “sexy” in front of it … Ta da! But, even though it may require a little more effort to find a costume that’s not based on a foundation of underwear and fishnets, if you plan on dressing up for work, plan on putting in the extra time to find something full-coverage.

2. Avoid controversy. If there’s even a question in your mind that your costume might offend your co-workers or spark an argument, go a different route. Your friends might get a kick out of your Casey Anthony costume, but do you really want to listen to your co-workers argue about whether or not she’s guilty all day? Didn’t think so.

Some other popular-yet-controversial costumes for 2011 that will probably cause more of a headache than they’re worth at work? A Wall Street protestor, Osama Bin Laden, Amanda Knox and any member of the crowded cohort that includes Anthony Weiner and Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

3. Don’t be a nuisance. If your office fully-embraces Halloween, chances are it won’t be the most productive day of the year. Still, there will probably be some work that needs to get done, so make sure your costume isn’t too distracting. If your getup has pieces that make noise, light up, blow bubbles, play music, etc., it’s best to leave these components home.

4. Keep your work environment in mind. If your office is small, fun and creative, you may be able to get away with more than if you work in a corporate environment or one where you’re required to interact with clients and customers all day. If you’re not sure what’s appropriate, ask co-workers what they plan on dressing up as, or what people were in years’ past.

Bottom line? Have fun, but use good judgment. If you have an inkling that your sexy, politically incorrect costume is not office appropriate, save it for the weekend, and choose something more neutral for 9-to-5. It can be your excuse to buy two costumes!

What other guidelines do you have for office costumes? Have you ever seen anyone go too far? Let us know in the comments section.

Kaitlin Madden is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.