I had read this hypothesis before, but a quick scan suggests a number of studies vindicate diet drinks, e.g. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27934644/

Thanks for sharing!

I used to drink a fair amount of diet and mostly quit because of the caffeine and the possibly tooth enamel damage.

It was surprising the amount of concerned friends who were convinced the stuff would kill me. I really looked for any hint of evidence that it might, and aspartame keeps winning.

I'm off it now anyway, but it does seem to just be nicely flavored (slightly acidic) caffeine water.

>pop

Soda.

>Soda.

Coke.

Good sir, please see my response to a sibling comment. I shall not repeat myself here. Good day sir, I said good day!

> Soda

Pop. Much nicer.

Pop is a concession, a retreat, a capitulation to the massive marketing machines of modern commerce. It began as a branding effort, while soda is descriptive of the chemical properties involved. Do not give in the the manipulation of corporate interests, even those whose roots are over a century old! (The abominable practice of others to call all sodas, generically, "coke" is similarly flawed although that name at least, in addition to marketing, has some basis in the chemical makeup of the drink that began its inception)

I've had insulin responses before, but I believe there is an anticipatory response at play there.

When I was on a relatively strict ketogenic diet in the past, the recommendation was to test your blood sugar level after consuming a larger-than-average amount over the course of 1-2 hours to see if there were spikes or troughs from a hormonal response.

Unless you have type 2 diabetes, any problem from a sugar-free insulin spike would likely be hunger.

> If I had to guess we are going to get a big breakthrough study on diet pop that is going to link it to diabetes or something like that

The Twin Cycle Hypothesis[0] predicts that many common cases of type 2 diabetes are from fat accumulation in the liver spilling to the pancreas and interfering with beta cell production of insulin. I wouldn't anticipate artificial sweeteners, even triggering an insulin response, to be able to do that without sugars also being consumed in tandem.

> I remain skeptical that there is a free lunch here.

Sugar-free gummy bears have quite the reputation because of how the gut reacts when you have a large quantity of sugar alcohols.

It doesn't _have_ to be a cancer or a chronic illness. It can be more acute.

[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23075228/ (arbitrary first hit)

I mean I worry from time to time. But really its the processed foods and the high fructose corn syrup that worries me more.

I try not to eat those. but its hard, its in everything.