This “healthy” drink worsens Diabetes 38%

For years, we’ve been told artificial sweeteners are the healthier choice to satisfy a sweet tooth.

But new research in Diabetes & Metabolism delivers an alarming twist: drinking just one artificially sweetened beverage daily could raise your type 2 diabetes risk by 38%.

Researchers from Australia and the Netherlands began investigating after spotting a troubling trend.

Despite the widespread shift to diet sodas and artificially sweetened drinks, diabetes rates weren’t falling.

Even people who used them to control weight had surprisingly high blood sugar issues and diabetes rates.

They turned to data from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, tracking 36,608 Australians aged 40–69 for 14 years. Participants reported how often they drank sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages, from “never” to “more than once daily.”

Results shocked the researchers:

● One or more artificially sweetened drinks daily = 38% higher diabetes risk

● One or more sugar-sweetened drinks daily = 23% higher diabetes risk

● After adjusting for body weight, the sugar-drink risk vanished — but the artificially sweetened drink risk stayed strong

● Risk climbed with more frequent consumption (dose-response effect)

This means artificial sweeteners appear to pose their own direct risk, independent of weight gain.

Why?
Some sweeteners like aspartame may trigger the same insulin response as sugar.
Others could disrupt gut bacteria, leading to poor blood sugar control.

The takeaway: both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks can harm your metabolic health, but artificial ones may be worse.

But if you already suffer type 2 diabetes, cutting sweeteners isn’t enough. Thousands of readers have completely reversed their type 2 diabetes by making a few simple diet and lifestyle changes—explained here…