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Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

24-week trial in 179 adults with diabetes: diet drinks beat water for blood sugar

Odegaard and colleagues · Diabetes care · 2026

Original title: The Effect of Substituting Water for Artificially Sweetened Beverages on Glycemic and Weight Measures in People With Type 2 Diabetes: The Study of Drinks With Artificial Sweeteners (SODAS), a Randomized Trial.

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 benefit

HbA1c was 0.29% (SE 0.12; P = 0.013) higher in the water group than the diet drink group. Body weight and other secondary measures showed no significant effects.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
179 people · 181 adults with type 2 diabetes who already drank diet drinks regularly
What was tested
24 oz a day of their usual diet drink or plain water in its place, for 24 weeks
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
Daily amount
24 oz a day
How long
24 weeks
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No potential conflicts of interest reported.
Journal
Diabetes care, 2026
Source
PubMed record 41369640. 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.
  • •Medium size: 179 people.
  • •Lasted 24 weeks.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for body weight and metabolic health. A better marker does not always mean better 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

  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

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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 6 papers on the same step: 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm. This one found benefit. It differs from most of them.

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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