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I enjoyed the article, but mostly for the entertaining nonsense.

The author’s very first statement, that people who stop eating sugar don’t have long to live, is completely wrong. She probably is thinking about how the body uses glucose for energy on a cellular level, but the digestive system converts starches and even proteins into glucose, too; sugar itself isn’t at all necessary. In fact, carbs are the only nutrient with no minimum safe level – there are many documented cases of people going decades without eating a single carb, much less sugar. Take Eskimos, for example.

Now, for sure, I’m not discounting that endurance athletes probably find sugar to be performance-enhancing. My friend, a pro bike rider, pointed this out, and I’m sure there’s good science for why it’s true.

But this article itself doesn’t contain any actual science. Their expert, Leslie, is a “registered dietitian,” and she reflects the bad old days of our nutrition science. (Fat makes you fat, Count Calories, etc.)

More of her incorrect statements:

1. “The brain only can use glucose.” Wrong, the brain can also work quite well on ketone bodies, or ketones, which is what it gets in ketosis.

2. “The body primarily uses glucose”. Nope, the body ONLY uses glucose – except in ketosis, when it also toodles along happily on ketone bodies.

3. She’s also implying that you need to eat sugar to have glucose available to your cells, which isn’t at all the case, as I mentioned above, although it may be an efficient way to do it during intense physical activity.

3. “Artificial sweeteners have been linked to weight gain, diabetes, destruction of gut bacteria, etc.” Actually these studies are anything but conclusive, and are blown up far beyond their importance by journalists who know that ironic conspiracy theories sell advertising. The health costs to sugared soda drinking are crystal clear and well-documented in comparison.

NY Times article

I worked out a routine where I would have two Diet Cokes in the morning when I got up and during breakfast. That left just eight to drink at the office, and if I just kept a can going while I talked on the phone and worked, I was usually done drinking soda by 4 pm or so.

The Diet Coke has come to seem like a little friend – a long line of cans across my desk, the day’s work, and the office strewn with empties like an out-of-control aluminum hoarder.

My weight is steady today, at one pound more than I started the experiment. We’ll see final results tomorrow, but this morning I recorded a very low fasting insulin level of 73 mg/dl, but it’s been holding the same as I started. This is the part that has been kind of boring, actually: In the first Coke experiment, my weight was constantly increasing, my vitals continually getting poorer. So, it’s not very exciting. Everyday the same weight.

The one thing I won’t miss is pricking my finger every morning to take a fasting blood glucose measurement. I know I’m being a baby, and there are a lot of people out there with diabetes who must do this all day – but I feel for you. At least if it’s Type II you do have the ability to improve or cure it by cutting out sugar and grains and fruit.

But I’m not a doctor. I’m just glad I don’t have to keep drawing blood every morning. It’s like “Welcome to your day! Here’s a sharp poke in the finger!”

I’ve got only 3 more Cokes to go today and then I’m done. I’ve had 297 Diet Cokes in the last 30 days.  Tomorrow, speaking of pokes in the finger, I go to get blood drawn for lab tests again. And then next week my doctor looks at the results… and tells me what?

I don’t like giving blood, but The Doctors TV show asked their doctor, Dr. Pinzone, an endocrinologist, to thoroughly examine me, before and after the test, to see what changes the 300 Diet Cokes caused to my health.

And those results are now looking like the only real chance we now have to determine how bad, or not bad, drinking Diet Coke REALLY is.

Because I’m not showing any of the health problems that I had when I drank regular Cokes. My body weight is the same – within a pound or 2 of where I started – and I haven’t noticed real changes to my fasting blood sugar or blood pressure. More than that, I feel fine. At the three week point in drinking regular Coke, I didn’t feel great.

The biggest problem I have with the Diet Coke drinking is related to the sheer volume of liquid; I’m making a dozen trips to the bathroom while I sit in the office drinking diet soda all day. I think that if I was drinking caffeinated water (which you can buy, actually), I would feel the same. Caffeinated and needing to pee.

But no one believes it. I’m still hearing from so many people who believe that Diet is worse for you than sugared soda.  I was on a talk radio program the other day, following a doctor who was warning that diet sodas cause diabetes and weight gain, but as soon as said that he might be exaggerating the dangers, I was off the program. “Diet Coke is Bad For You” = interesting news. Sells toothpaste. “Diet Coke isn’t that Bad For You” – Boring. Turn the channel.

Except for the millions of people dying from diseases related to high insulin, which is caused so dramatically more by sugar than artificial sweetener. It could be very damaging to dissuade people from switching from sugared soda to Diet because of exaggerated fears about the dangers of diet.

So, it’s all coming down to the blood lab tests and Dr. Pinzone. Will he find changes in my blood labs that show Diet to be even worse than sugared soda? Nine more days, 90 more Diet Cokes.

Ugh. Tired of drinking so much Diet Coke. It’s five o’clock and I’m choking down #10. A full day’s work. On the other hand, my health still seems to be under control. Saw a minor weight gain over the weekend of two pounds, but that’s probably a normal variation for me, and also maybe related to eating a bunch of Mexican food, margaritas, and breaded seafood.

We’ll see tomorrow, when the first three weeks are completed.

Statement of CSPI Senior Scientist Lisa Lefferts

September 17, 2014
Intriguing findings in a paper published in Nature raise serious questions about the effect of saccharin and possibly other artificial sweeteners on the microbial world inside our digestive tracts and the resulting impact on blood sugar and metabolism. What these chemicals do in our gut deserves further study. But consumers already have ample reason to avoid saccharin and aspartame, and reason to be cautious about sucralose, primarily because of evidence from animal studies that they may cause cancer.
However, it would be a mistake to conclude that diet sodas are worse than drinks sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, and no diet-soda drinker should interpret the new study as license to switch to regular soda. The study does not overturn the best studies that show that people who drink diet soda don’t have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes (unlike people who drink regular soda), and that people are more likely to gain weight on sugar-sweetened than diet beverages. These risks from sugar drinks far out-weigh the new concerns raised today about artificial sweeteners.

Many readers this week have sent links to various research studies that claim diet soda still causes weight gain, or insulin resistance, or other disease – but when comparing the results of the studies to the known and quantifiable health dangers of sugared soda, this research on the dangers of Diet is thin, so to speak. The researchers in the studies admit causal difficulties; for example not factoring in caloric consumption in one study, and the fact, in a number of other studies, that people with obesity and related health issues are more likely to choose diet soda in the first place, blurring any increase in health problems in diet soda drinkers.

The research about changes in gut bacteria summarizes that the changes appeared individual, occurring in some people and not others.

The body’s insulin response to sugar is not individual. Everyone’s insulin rises when they eat sugar, the percent of population that reacts with weight gain and health problems is a monstrous majority.

Chemicals. Diet soda is just a mix of chemicals, many people point out. Sure, but they don’t appear related to health problems in the same way as insulin resistance. My favorite complaint about diet soda is that it is used to clean sinks in third world countries. The implication, of course, is that diet soda contains some powerful corrosive poison that is doing the same thing to your body as drain cleaner does to sinks. But it’s just not true. It’s the phosphoric acid and citric acid in the drink that works on some kinds of stains, but it does not damage your body in the same way. You regularly consume citric acid in fruit and phosphoric acid in dairy products, baking powder, and granola bars. It’s like saying that vinegar is bad for you because it can also dissolve the tarnish off an old penny. It’s true: leave a penny resting in a puddle of hot sauce next time you’re at Taco Bell and see it get clean. But that doesn’t mean the hot sauce is bad for you. Hot sauce is good for you; everyone knows that.

Take it with a grain of salt, since I’m only two weeks in, but here’s what I’m starting to think: Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.  Don’t let the very insubstantial research about how diet soda may not be as healthy as water stop you from quitting regular soda. The sugar is killing you. Get off it, even by substituting diet soda, and you will be healthier.

I’m only two weeks into drinking the diet soda, but I have gained NO weight. The caffeine is having a noticeable effect, but doesn’t seem to be a major issue for my physical stats. And, keep in mind, there are plenty of caffeine-free diet sodas. And phosphoric acid free, if you want. I’m just doing Diet Cokes to get a worst-case scenario.

And that scenario, so far, doesn’t appear as bad as the sugared soda scenario.

By this point in the regular, sugared, Coke test I had gained almost 15 pounds. How dangerous is that?

Took my blood pressure in the morning, and then again this afternoon, and in spike of the 7 Diet Cokes, it is only marginally higher. 127/79 this morning, and 130/83 at 2 pm. And my BP is typically higher in the afternoon than morning, so the rise doesn’t mean much. I’m just glad it’s down in a reasonable range.

The excellent doctor who examined me before the experiment and will examine me afterwards, and look at the results of our blood tests, also wanted me to make sure and take my BP readings at the same time all day, so I’m measuring in the a.m.