A Study Found Diet Coke Is Better for You Than Water (Sort Of)
- bigrickstuart
- Feb 8
- 2 min read
What the study found
In the delightfully named SODAS trial (Study Of Drinks with Artificial Sweeteners), researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, recruited adults who had type 2 diabetes and who had a habit of drinking artificially sweetened beverages (including, but not limited to, my one true love Diet Coke). The study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
The main outcome the researchers studied was hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) as measured by a blood test. This is a common test used to monitor glucose control in people who have diabetes or are at risk for it. The higher your HbA1C, the higher your blood glucose has probably been over the past three months or so.
The results: HbA1C got slightly better in the group that was drinking artificial sweeteners: from 7.19% to 7.14%. It got worse in the group that was drinking water, from 7.20% to 7.44%.
The researchers collected a few other metrics, for good measure. Fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and “time in range” as measured by a continuous glucose monitor all favored the diet drinks group. The people in the diet drinks group lost a little bit of weight (on average, two pounds) while those in the water group had stable weights. The researchers referred to this difference in weight loss as “statistically significant, but not clinically significant.” In other words, probably real, but too small to matter.
Bottom line: there was no real benefit to the people in the study switching from diet sodas to water; if anything, doing so may have slightly hurt their health.