Drinks with artificial sweeteners don't cause weight gain – and can even help you shed the poundssuggests one study.
Contrary to previous research, scientists in Britain have found that drinking two cans of artificially sweetened drinks, such as Diet Coke or Coke Zero, for a year has no significant impact on body weight.
The study even suggested that those who drink the equivalent in water may gain weight.
Participants in the diet drink group lost an average of 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds), while those who stuck to water lost 6.1 kilograms (13.4 pounds).
However, the scientists caution that this finding was not statistically significant.
The British researchers examined weight loss in overweight and obese people who drink low-calorie, sweetened drinks, compared to people who drink water.
Participants who drank water lost an average of 6.1 kilograms (13.4 pounds), while the artificial sweetener or NNS group lost 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds), although the researchers called the difference “statistically insignificant.”
Sweeteners have come under fire in recent years over claims they cause weight gain, diabetes and cancer
They recruited 496 participants aged 18-65 years old, with an average body mass index (BMI) of 31.
Only 262 people completed the full, year-long study, which was funded by the American Beverage Association.
Half drank at least two 330 milliliter servings of water per day, while the other half consumed artificially sweetened drinks.
Not only was no weight gain found in the diet drink group, they also showed improvements in HDL (good) cholesterol, which has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Those who followed the water regimen lost the most weight after week 44, while those who drank sweetened beverages lost the most weight after week 26.
Both groups started regaining weight after this point, although the sweetener group regained weight more slowly than the water group.
The results conflict with recent research suggesting that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame lead to weight gain, as well as lasting health consequences such as diabetes and cancer.
Shoppers can also find sweeteners like aspartame in a variety of drinks and snacks, including Coke Zero, Powerade and Snapple
In 2017, a review was published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association analyzed 37 studies of more than 400,000 adults over a ten-year period.
They concluded that artificial sweeteners did not help people lose weight and suggested that those who consumed them regularly were more likely to gain weight than those who did not.
Sweeteners have also been linked to a greater risk of diabetes and heart disease.
Furthermore, research from 2023 shows the University of Minnesota found that long-term exposure over twenty years led to increased body fat.
However, previous research has also shown that the opposite is true.
In 2016, a report published in the journal Obesity found that overweight and obese adults lost more weight by drinking artificially sweetened beverages than by drinking water.
The different conclusions between the studies are said to be due to a number of factors. For example, studies that rely on patients to honestly report the drinks they've consumed are notoriously unreliable – because participants don't always remember correctly.
It is also unclear whether people with a genetic predisposition to obesity are more likely to drink diet drinks – because they are trying to lose weight.
In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines stating that consuming sweeteners “does not provide any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.”
Artificial sweeteners have also come under fire with a WHO committee declaring the sweetener aspartame a possible carcinogen, meaning it can cause cancer.
However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has stated that it “disagrees” with that assessment.
The findings were published in October in the International Journal of Obesity.