Dr. Ron Najafi says artificial sweeteners are about half as bad as sugar, but drinking large volumes of diet soda multiplies the harm. He points to two mechanisms: they alter your gut bacteria and trigger inflammation, and sweet taste alone signals your body to release insulin, promoting chronic inflammation even with zero calories.
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Everybody wants to know about artificial sweeteners. Appropriately so, short answer, half as bad. We actually have the data. Now, the toxicity of one Coca Cola equals the toxicity of two diet Coca Cola. Half as bad. Now, half as bad does not mean good. It means half as bad, right? And if you drink 10 Diet Cokes, thinking, well, I'm not getting any fructose, I'm not getting any calories, then it will be five times worse, okay? And that's what people do, of course. Now the question is why are diet sweeteners bad? And the answer is twofold. One changes the microbiome and leads to inflammation and glucose intolerance by itself not related to fructose. And number two, when you put something sweet on the tongue tells the brain sugar's coming brain tells the pancreas release the insulin anyway, even though it's not sugar, even though it's zero calories, you get the insulin response anyway. And it's the insulin response that drives the chronic inflammation cell proliferation.