Popular diet sodas beloved by Donald Trump and Taylor Swift are better for you than water.
Well, at least when it comes to losing weight.
Recently, videos have circulated on TikTok claiming the hidden sweetener-infused soda benefit — citing year-long studies that found participants drinking two cans of diet soda a day lost twice as much weight as those drinking water.
But now nutritionists say there may be some method to the madness, by stating that that anything that can help someone reduce their calorie intake can help with weight loss.
This may include diet beverages, they said, which could help someone satisfy sugar cravings — reducing snacking on other calorific snacks.
But they warn the drinks likely will not lead to long-term weight loss because they do not solve sugar cravings, which can lead someone to re-gain weight after a diet.
Dr Marion Nestle, a top nutritionist at NYU Langone, told the Daily Mail: ‘Weight gain is the result of eating more calories than are expended in metabolism and physical activity. Anything that reduce calorie intake, from any source, should help.
‘Neither water nor diet sodas have calories, but diet sodas have chemical sweeteners that might encourage eating more food.’
She added: ‘Studies on the effects of diet soda are mixed. Water, by definition, is neutral.’
Taylor Swift is known to be a fan of Diet Coke, and was pictured in advertisements for the drink in 2013
The speculation on diet sodas vs water for weight loss was sparked by a resurfaced 2015 study that suggested sweetener-infused beverages may boost weight loss.
In the paper 303 overweight or obese adults — mostly women in their 40s — were split into two groups and asked to follow a particular diet for a year.
One group was asked to drink two cans of diet soda every day, and given coupons for Coca Cola products — including Diet Coke — as well as for Diet Pepsi and Diet Dr Pepper among others.
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While the others were asked to consume the equivalent amount of water every day over the same period.
Participants were also allowed to consume sugar-sweetened beverages and those in the water group could have diet soda too, but had to consume their daily water as well.
All participants were put through a weight loss program — involving exercise and diet guidance — for 12 weeks and were then monitored for 40 weeks.
At the end of the study, those who were drinking water had lost 5.4lbs overall but those drinking diet sodas had lost 13.7lbs — or double the weight.
Researchers said the difference could be down to the sweetened drinks helping reduce cravings for something sweet, helping participants to reduce consumption of sugary foods.
But the study had several drawbacks, including that participants were only tracked for a year and it only included people who were already regular diet soda drinkers.
Dr David Katz, a dietitian at Yale University in Connecticut, dismissed the study at the time as something of a ‘straw man’ — saying there were too many limitations for a conclusive result.
Donald Trump is also a fan, and reported to have up to 12 cans of Diet Coke a day. He is pictured above in May this year
He pointed out it only included habitual diet soda drinkers, saying it was likely that those drinking water found a way to indulge their sweet tooth in some other way — adding more calories to the diet.
This differs from habitual water drinkers, he suggested, who may not have a sweet tooth and could lose weight faster.
Nearly a decade later, the study was repeated — by another group of researchers at Liverpool University, in the UK.
Like the first, it found those drinking the diet sodas lost 16.5lbs, or about 23 percent more, than those drinking water, who lost 16.5lbs.
But unlike the first study, the results were not significant — meaning another factor had a role.
The researchers had included people who regularly drank diet sodas, but also about one in four participants did not regularly consume them prior to the trial.
Experts suggest this could mean that more people on the water diet did not have strong sweet-food cravings, leading them to consume less food overall.
Diet sodas have been the focus of mountains of research on whether they can help to boost weight loss, although concrete evidence to back this up has been scant.
Instead, researchers have raised concerns over the sweeteners used within them — like aspartame, used in Diet Coke, which has been labeled a possible carcinogen.
While studies have also warned that consuming the sodas regularly can raise someones risk of type 2 diabetes.
They say this is because the sweetener used, saccharin, can interfere with how the body interprets insulin — raising the risk of complications.
The science is still very much unclear on whether diet sodas could help someone lose weight more quickly than if they drunk water.
The jury is still very much out on whether diet sodas could help someone to lose weight (stock)
The World Health Organization has indicated that much of the data in this area is poor, with trials typically only lasting three months or less.
Some reviews of studies have warned that consuming too much diet soda can have long-term negative health effects, including impaired glucose metabolism and increased risk of comorbidities.
And others have found little impact on weight loss from consuming diet soda instead of water — including a 2022 meta-analysis of 17 studies which found sweetener-infused beverages offered only a 'small improvement' in body weight.
Avery Zenker, a registered dietitian for MyHealthTeam in Canada, said: 'Choosing diet soda instead of water could reinforce a preference for sweet flavors, which may affect appetite regulation or lead to seeking out other sweet foods.
'In contrast, water tends to promote a more neutral palate and a natural connection with thirst and hunger cues. Over time, these could influence someone's relationship with food and overall lifestyle.'
She added: 'There's also growing research that artificial sweeteners could negatively alter the gut microbiome. Gut microbiome health is associated with weight, where gut imbalances could be playing a factor in obesity and make weight loss more difficult.'