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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

12-week trial in 46 young people: diet drinks did not clearly change BMI

Ismail and colleagues · Nutrients · 2025

Original title: The Impact of Artificially Sweetened Drinks on Metformin Efficacy.

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

No difference

Mean BMI changed by -0.55 ± 1.49 with unsweetened drinks and -0.23 ± 1.60 with diet drinks. The difference was not statistically clear (p = 0.6). Pilot study, too small to be sure.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
46 people · 46 children and young people aged 10 to 21 with obesity and prediabetes, all taking metformin
What was tested
Diet drinks compared with unsweetened drinks for 12 weeks
What it measured
The question itself: body weight and metabolic health
How long
12 weeks
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
Nutrients, 2025
Source
PubMed record 40077667. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • –Small: 46 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • •Lasted 12 weeks.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: body weight and metabolic health.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •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

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: body weight

    4

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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

Of the other 3 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found no difference.

Other papers on the same step

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 2 fields 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
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