Digestery
Diet and food › Sweeteners and Weight › Studies

Systematic review

Review of 55 studies: diet drinks linked to higher obesity and diabetes risk

Diaz and colleagues · Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023

Original title: Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to harm

Diet drinks were linked to higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, with highly suggestive evidence. Authors say more cohort studies and trials are needed.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Systematic review
Who or what was studied
55 studies · people in 51 cohort and 4 case-control studies, drawn from 11 earlier pooled analyses
What was tested
People who drink diet drinks often, compared with people who drink few or none
What it measured
The question itself: body weight and metabolic health
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 2023
Source
PubMed record 37187453. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • •Sums up 55 studies found with a set search method, without pooling the numbers.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: body weight and metabolic health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a systematic review, and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: body weight

    4

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 2 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    7

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm

  4. Population studies

    5

    1 benefit, 4 harm

  5. Blood levels and genes

    1

    1 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Do artificial sweeteners cause weight gain?”

Trials say no; population studies disagree.

Confidence: low. Based on 32 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer
  • Part of the finding “Many population studies link sweeteners to more weight”.
  • Summed up in “What reviews found”: Umbrella review of 11 pooled analyses from 7 reviews (51 cohort and 4 case-control studies). Diet drinks were linked to higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Only observational studies, so links, not causes.

Other reviews on this question

See all 32 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
Not yet. Required before search engines may list this page.

Spot an error? Email a flag with a link to your source, or use the form on the question page.