Wasn’t there a large longitudinal study just released confirming that aspartame does increase risk of cancer?

I like when I watch Dr Mike videos and I pause them to go do something, then I come back and he's in the middle of some story about breaking people's legs with crutches and I've completely forgot what point he was making

As a former morbidly obese who have lost about 88Ibs while drinking diet soda almost every single day, just can't put in words how it has helped me not only to stick to a diet but also to realize that it was possible to have some "joy" while doing it ,specially in the beginning of this process, when I had almost no clue about how dieting was or could be. Nowadays definitely dieting has become a habit and way easier, but gotta say that in a first moment, diet soda ended up to be a thing that really helped me to stay on track and to control some of my sugar cravings.

The beginning of my nutritional transformation started with switching from regular soda to diet. As an experiment, I switched over to see what effects it would have. 3 weeks later I was down 21lbs. I literally changed nothing else about my eating or exercise routine. Just figured I'd share my anecdotal evidence. Thanks for awesome content as always.

I was 280 when I decided to change my lifestyle and get healthy but I wanted to do it slowly to maintain it rather than crash diet. Swapping from regular soda to diet I was able to lose almost 20 lbs in a couple months with no other changes and felt so much better. I completely agree with what he is saying here.

I just started drinking diet sodas about 3 months ago and I have roughly 8-12oz a day on my most depressing meal but man it's a killer drink I love 'em I've stuck to my food diet way more consistent because of it, they made these drinks taste like their normal ones it's insane, led to me dropping 20lbs

Down 90lbs since quarantine doing a full transformation. I drink 2-3 diet sodas a day to stay full when eating a low-calorie diet (in addition to 1 gallon of water daily). My blood pressure and blood lipid levels are now pristine. Diet soda is a fantastic tool if you need it.

"It's fun to drink"- Dr. Mike, very true.. everything is unhealthy beyond moderation but especially 'fun' habits, or at least dopamine stimulating ones

Zero sugar soda has really helped me. It tastes a lot better than diet soda, tastes more similar to regular soda. I have been a soda addict for a long time, and cutting out soda helped me lose 50 pounds 2 years ago. (along with exercise)

It’s not the carbonation that causes enamel erosion. It’s the phosphoric acid, which is added to adjust pH 2.5.

It's kinda cute that Dr. Mike thinks a large coke is 200 calories.

Many of the same people who claim diet soda is worse than soda also claim that sugar is the worst thing you can ever have. But then they drink soda and their justification is that it’s not diet soda so it’s okay. Weird logic.

This video has changed my life. You've made my nights out much simpler and guilty-free. Thanks man!

I’ve actually had the exact opposite experience with feeling full. Diet sodas help me feel full much faster and for longer due to the carbonation. The carbonation in sodas has always made me feel full, so I bought more diet sodas during my cut knowing this. When I’m hungry I can drink one and full pretty full/satisfied for a good hour or so. That said, this video is still rock solid in terms of what diet soda is, and how it’s a great tool for a fat loss diet!

Two amazing drinks for those that enjoy diet sodas: Coke Zero and Diet A&W root beer. Nectar of the gods!

Dude. How do you make talking lectures so entertaining. Why can’t teachers and professors be this good

Definitely agree on the importance of avoiding regular soda. Avoiding that alone is a huge improvement to excess calories (with the caveats mentioned). Will have to read more about this.

Man this video hit the algorithm where it hurts. Glad to see RP getting so much traction!

For me the real killer with artificial sweeteners is they seem to have negative satiation. As you pointed out, the stimulation from them can make some people (ME) want more junk food. With that said, I definitely agree with everything you said. They don't magically make you fat with calories they don't have.

This was very interesting. For years I had thought diet soda was much worse for people than regular soda (and both were bad for people in general). I lost about 70 pounds at one time in my life cleaning up my diet and increasing activity levels. I've since put on about 40 from my lightest, but also added on a good amount of muscle (not only muscle gained, if I'm being honest) One of my friends has been known to drink an entire case/box of diet coke in a single day before. Yes, he is in poor shape, but that is likely because of how little activity he has and the bare minimum of whole foods he eats.

…I’ve been waiting over 20 years for someone to make a “13th Warrior”reference. Thanks Mike 👍

Dr. Mike is a pure gold. Great job.

When I was a junior in high school (late '80s) I drank a ton of regular Coke. Just before Thanksgiving I switched to Diet Coke. No other changes to my diet or lifestyle. By New Year's I'd lost 20 pounds. I've never gone back. Still drinking the DC and still hearing the myths. Thanks for your work. I subscribed and I'm looking forward to seeing your other vids.

I lost about 20 pounds first year I switched to zero-calorie sodas and that was 2 decades ago. It also removed my sugar addiction. Since I no longer consumed sugar on regular basis, my need for it vanished, and with that a desire for candy. Unlike sugar, a sweetener is not a stimulant and give no kick beyond the caffeine. I also no longer liked to drink sugary drinks since it felt they coated my tongue and teeth in an icky way. 2 decades later and I very rarely drink any kind of beverage with sugar on a regular basis, but I do prefer a sweetened soda to water.

I’ve been drinking like 4 diet sodas a day while cutting lol 😂

I'm a 3 a dayer myself. Glad to know its Dr approved! 😁

Dr Mike is wrong here. There was a very significant paper published in Cell (study of the effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human metabolism) and there conclusion was: Diet Soda can (and problably will) make u fat. Chris Van Tulleken did a talk about the subject on the The Royal Institution channel.

Personal experience: Drinking zero sugar/aspartame and acesulfame k soda caused me great acid reflux pain. Even one small bottle, and I am done. Now if I want to drink it, just go for regular sugary one and I am good.

Coke no sugar no caffeine has 4 calories per litre and I love it

For 30 years I've been drinking loads of PepsiMax, Coke Zero and various artificial sweetners in my coffee as well as for baking and have never had any problems or negative outcomes. 5 years ago I was overweight but lost 40kgs by completely cutting out added sugar, implementing a calorie deficit and religiously exercising (weights and cardio) everyday, and I've managed to slowly keep losing fat and increase muscle mass ever since. I'm nearly 50 and in the best shape of my life with recent blood work and even a colonoscopy confirming my excellent health. It's great to hear Dr Mike confirm what I've always known after researching artificial sweetners numerous times over the years and never finding anything significantly negative, and especially when compared to sugar which causes a litany of serious health problems.

I'd add as a caveat, avoid any soda if you have a hard time controlling your urges. Especially if you're on a low carb diet, it can easily snowball into more sweets and junk.

Thanks for this video. I've suspected these things for some time, but have never been entirely certain. This is a good example of a topic you can't easily look up on the internet and find a definitive answer because there are SO many sources out there that provide opinions based on conventional wisdom rather than scientific research or evidence. It's hard to wade through the bullshit, but you do it very eloquently and succinctly as you do with so many health-related topics. I appreciate your videos a great deal.

7-Up Zero deserves honorable mention

I used to be 215 lb at 5 ft 6 and now I'm jacked, 150 lb, 8-10% body fat with a six pack. Diet soda was instrumental in helping me kick my sugar addiction. Over the years I have consumed less and less of it however I still have 8 to 10 servings per week. The major reason I decreased consumption was the caffeine. Now I mostly consume diet soda around workouts to leverage the caffeine. I actually find diet ginger ale and root beer (which are caffeine free) are actually soothing to my stomach after certain types of meals.

Currently WHO has said aspartame is a carcinogen...any thoughts?

Old Fit type1 diabetic here. I almost always order diet drink with big meals. AND Sugetfullb sodas are for medical emergencies ONLY IMO, diet sodas are a godsend and make my world more bearable. Thank-you for this contenrlt❤

Really enjoying these frequent uploads!

This is a game changer. I’ve avoided diet soda for a long time. It’s definitely going to improve my work days at the office 🙂. Thanks for the info

Great point about the sweetness of diet soda potentially increasing cravings for other bullshit. I made some great progress by incorporating Greg Doucette anabolic cookbook type artificial sweet foods, but I learned the hard way that an excess of highly palatable low calorie alternatives makes me crave the real junk food even harder

Completely agree on the zero sugar option on soda. Absolutely can't stand diet versions but I drink zero sugar versions 95% of the time now. Had a normal mt dew recently for the first time in a while, tasted way to sweet for my liking.

Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Zero are my go to diet drinks , always will be. I don’t get why people still have such knock against them .

The studies never independently account for the effects of regular phosphoric acid exposure on dental enamel or oral mucosa. It might be premature to say there’s no deleterious effects whatsoever.

I know this is an old video, but I leared in my science nutrition class that these 0 calories sodas, although do infact have 0 kcal, still do spike your insuline levels, but instead of having an insuline spike with an insuline load (aka CHO or blood sugar in the blood), the body is just left with the free insuline wihtout the load to actually absorb, thus potentially increasing the risk for insuline resistance. If that were to be the case then I'd say these diet sodas are far for being as inert to the body as water.

Regular coke has always been my favorite and I tried to like Diet Coke but couldn’t get used to it. Then I tried the Coke Zero and it was so much better but, the one that tastes the most like regular coke is the Coke Zero cherry. I don’t know what it is but I think the cherry flavor pushes the zero so much closer to regular coke. I don’t drink it everyday but when I get a fizzy drink craving I know I can grab a cherry Coke Zero to satisfy that craving without all the sugar I was drinking before with regular coke.

They've been awful for my teeth, I can tell you that

I'm mainlining sucralose, it gave me superpowers

this video is fantastic!! thank you for making this. I think the issue about diet soda is that you are getting something ( sweet) for nothing ( zero calories) so there MUST be a consequence ( cancer).

I’m drinking a Diet Coke and eating peanut butter pretzel bites while I’m watching this video. Fantastic!

Well this was great timing! I recently gave up diet soda pepsi max/coke zero), mainly to save my teeth. I was a heavy soda drinker in the past then I switched to diet when I got into fitness and lost about a 1/3 of my bodyweight through diet/exercise. I was so surprised how much I struggled the first week giving up diet soda, I was walking around like a zombie. I feel so naïve to admit it but I just assumed there was no caffeine in diet drinks! I've always been sensitive to caffeine and can't even handle a coffee. It's been an interesting process and long term I'm hoping I won't be so up and down with my moods. Also so funny you said...I've been drinking fizzy water and cranberry/blueberry juice instead..otherwise I'll just have tap water. I'd be interested to know anyone else's experience...did you end up craving sweet things? ^.^

I started drinking diet coke 3 weeks ago. So far so good, although I now am 100 pounds overweight, with diabetes, my cat died, and my aunt came back from the dead as a zombie.

I like how you had to stop on more than one occasion to confess your love for diet soda. But for real, the new recipe of coke zero is 🔥🔥 I also need to look for this diet cranberry juice?!?!? How have I not known about this, I fuckin love cranberry juice.

I have an unnatural addiction to Diet Pepsi, I like it more than regular Pepsi. I’m pretty fortunate in that regard. It has to be caffeine free as can taste it, caffeine is bitter ( yes I’ve been tested by friends and family dozens of times because they say I’m crazy and I can tell the vast majority of the time).

You actually convinced me. I only drink soda once every once in a blue moon, and always drink regular soda "if I'm gonna have a soda anyway", because over the long run, it averages out to less than a 12oz can per month, year over year. Worst case scenario: the diet soda reminds me of why I don't drink diet soda because 99% of them taste like chemical swill to me, and I start drinking zero sodas per year.

Coke Zero is pretty on point for sure.

I read studies back in 2009-10 showing bad effects. At the time I was getting sinus headaches a few times a week and taking decongestants and pain relievers for them. I stopped drinking diet soda and also using splenda in my coffee. Within two weeks I completely stopped getting headaches and sinus trouble. I haven't been getting headaches all these years. I do get a tension headache once in a while if I over do my Traps and Shoulders workout, but it doesn't last long or feel that bad. Many studies are not well managed, and/or incomplete for example not conducted on people who have the problems associated with the chemicals in question and examining the habits of people affected negatively by said chemicals. In my opinion after years of eliminating as many non-natural chemicals as possible from my diet I have a much better quality of life than I once did. I'm sure you would agree injesting healthy naturally grown and unprocessed foods is much better than injesting processed foods with who knows what chemicals added either as ingredients or during processing. My motto: "If God made it eat it, if man made it toss it".

I always feel like this is a lunch time talk. Dude is so chill and his body language just reads calm and funny. Love this shit

Dude Big Sugar has a FAT bounty on your head rn Dr. Mike 😂 And yea that salt/sweet pairing sends you into a vicious cycle of overconsumption of food. Fat me used to not be able to eat pizza without a coke to pair it with😂

Hey Mike! I have a bit of an unusual question: I’m Finnish and in Finland it is mandatory for young men to serve in the army for a year. It’s not like we’re being deployed or anything but we are trained in case of a military conflict. There is a chance to go to the gym but it varies a lot since some days are so long and there are weeks spent in the woods with no chance to do anything. In addition the food is absolutely horrendous. So my question is this: how do keep my muscle gains during my service, is it even possible? And if so how do I make it optimal? It would help me a lot!

I’m a little late to this, but there are some additional questions I have: 1) I saw some studies that agree that aspartame has a tendency to increase insulin resistance, have you seen any evidence in your experience that contradicts this? 2) I also saw that apparently, regular consumption of aspartame also may have a linkage to headaches. Any thoughts?

The acid in soft drinks: am I a joke to you?

Mike could you do a vid on the best ways to maintain muscle on lets say a vacation for a few weeks without lifting? Through diet or other means?

Any chance of a followup video since the WHO aspartame update?

Aspartame definitely adds hunger for me. Makes me want more food or crave bad foods. If I can, I'll go carbonated water because I realized I prefer the carbonation stimulus over the flavor of the soda. I'll keep my calories to meals. Snacking on fatty/salty carbs is a bad habit and diet coke definitely gets me peckish.

My muscles cramp with diet soda. I drink close to half my body weight in ounces of water and take magnesium. When I thought maybe it could be a lack of either of those items, the cramping continued. Cramping stopped immediately when I stopped the diet soda.

So my gallon of Diet Pepsi a day is nothing to worry about? Awesome!

Love this video, I get really tired of people correlating cancer with diet soda.

Drinking my first diet Dr. Pepper after watching your recent collab with Jeff Nippard. After spending over half of my 21 years drinking pretty much multiple cans a day I'm excited to try this out

My blood work showed elevated Uric Acid, up to 4 times the high level. Doctor proposed I should stop drinking alcohol, which I don't do often and stop eating meat, which is also not a lot... All I did was stop drinking 2 litres Coke Zero Sugar a day and only drinking water. 2 months later my levels are completely normalized. Soda's are bad for a number of reasons when used in 'large quantities' although 2 litres doesnt seem excessive and I believe many people would drink as much. One a day won't hurt, but I'd rather stay away from soda now I've weened off of the stuff.

I'd just like to say the inconsistent titling for this series throws you off a bit. Usually you've been titling with the myth itself, but this one is titling with the counterargument

Water in a mason jar with a drop of lemon essential oil is amazing. Idk if there are any real benefits of the lemon oil besides taste. But it makes the water taste so much fresher and just better in general. I use to knock all those cucumber waters and stuff like that, until I tried them. They’re actually pretty lit.

Man your personality and articulation of content is so Entertaining and Informative!!! Great job 👏

I haven’t drank soda in about 12 years. Lost weight without changing anything else at the time. This also got me going on the weight loss journey. Like well if soda can do this, wonder what cutting out other junk could do 🤪

never bought into that shit anyway., the same friend of mine who thinks Aspartam is literally meth is also a flat earther, I swear

Love that coke zero shit...

Only thing I'm counting with my hampster is the seconds before he pops through my back door

Dead park humor is one of my favorites. And so is learning. So glad I stumbled upon your channel!

I decided to try a Coke Zero Sugar a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it, but because I want to remain caffeine free, I've been avoiding it. Maybe I can try some other diet soda or just continue drinking only water.

I was initially put off by this channel, but Mike's data driven presentations are winning me over. It's becoming my favorite fitness channel. It doesn't hurt that Mike and I share the same sense of humor.

I quit drinking Diet Coke a month or two ago. I do miss it sometimes because it is fun to drink, but I find it very hard not to down three or four a day and that shit gets expensive. Whereas after a few days without it, I just stopped missing it. It's amazing how adaptable your taste is to changes in what you drink. Basically drink anything for a week or two and it will become your preference. Unfortunately many people don't realize this and insist that they "just can't" do diet soda. You have to try it once to see how your taste adapts.

Key point: “as far as I know, there aren’t any serious outcomes” -> there may be something you don’t know -> you can’t claim you know it’s safe

Switching soda for diet soda helped me lose 20kg (in combination with exercise and proper diet) over a 3y period. That extra work for the hearth removed will probably increase my life quality a lot over the next 50-60 years of my life

I love how Mike gives props to ONLY the Moderna vaccine when listing scientific accomplishments. Pfizer: The Pepsi of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

Googled: Asperthame study, first result dated Sept 20,2023: "Aspartame could cause memory and learning deficits in future generations: new study"

The gut biome is the main concern i have about diet soda, and the bad bacteria it feeds. I will say that aspartame I have not too much about, and that is good to point out the sketchy study. I find that apple cider vinegar, salt, cinnamon, and even lemon really hits the spot, though I have worked to get myself off all soda and enjoy water. Water for thirst, juice for taste. Often, I never get past thirst phase since that is more than enough

You gotta love when the fattest person you’ve ever seen in your life calls you unhealthy for drinking a diet soda.

Doc, you’ve missed the main point. Don’t know why. These are the words from a Diabetic Specialist: “Diet soda’s artificial sweetener mimics sugar, thus causing the pancreas to release insulin when not needed”. “Sugar does make you fat, but it’s also an energy source (calories/kilojoules are a measurement of energy)”;you know this. “If you burn the sugar (obviously in moderation), with a healthy pancreas, you’re actually living a healthy life”. “Drinking diet soda to lose weight is like playing with fire, because you currently have a weight problem and the pancreas is working overtime. If you develop diabetes due to your weight problem and or yo-yo dieting, YOU’RE SCREWED!!!. Your pancreas now has no idea what sugar is, and your diabetes will be so severe, you’ll become subject to comas at either end. From a simple sip of something with sugar in it or something with no sugar; the pancreas has no idea. It is a nightmare!!! Point being: If you’re a healthy weight, with a healthy diet and exercise regime, and start drinking diet soda, you will slowly ruin the function of your pancreas. If you have developed diabetes from weight not only applicable to sugar, then drinking diet soda like water, it will make no difference because the pancreas won’t be releasing insulin when the sweetener is in the system. The pancreas is broken but can be managed. If you drink diet soda like you’re saying and so many others: to lose weight. And end up developing diabetes from fatty foods etc (weight gain), they may as well remove the pancreas. Diet soda for diabetics, real soda for non. And simply don’t put so much sugar in your body. Non diabetic drinking diet soda like water WILL harm the pancreas. If your healthy and develop diabetes, and have been drinking diet soda like water; life will become extremely unpleasant. Sorry buddy, love your content, but you are wrong on this one.

I quit Aspartame (Diet Rite Sodas) in 1991 and never looked back. It literally made my face go numb. Back then, 80% of all complaints to FDA were over Aspartame.

I literally was talking about this topic with my partner and were so glad you covered this, thank you

The thing that gets your teeth is enamel erosion. That white stuff that coats your healthy teeth. Super hard stuff that doesn't grow back once its gone. When you have a snack of just about anything (some things more so than others like sugar, acidic substances too like carbonated beverages in general) the "microfilm of bacteria" ( unavoidable effect of living in the real world with all kinds of microscopic critters crawling around and on every kind of surface and, well, food.) feeds on some of those sugars/ carbohydrates that you munched upon/drank. The little buggers get really active after this and cause after some micro chemistry the surface of the tooth, the enamel, to loose some of it's hardness. In this state things like even brushing your teeth can abrade the enamel ever so slightly. Though it chafes off gradually nowhere near as good at putting up with the physical stress of grinding against food or the other teeth nor staving off the microbes living in your mouth, leading to some rather revolting google image search material. Luckily the Enamel stays in it's weakened state for a relatively short time. About 30 minutes or so. During which time your Saliva works on neutralizing the acids in your mouth. Turns out that preserving your enamel is as simple as limiting your daily ingestion events to a reasonable number of 3-6. Drinking a soda, one after the other for hours on end resets that 30 min period and will leave your enamel in a vulnerable state indefinitely if you are diligently popping those cans. So save a buck at the dentists office and drink responsibly!

I'm watching this video immediately after reading that the WHO are adding aspartame to a list of substances which *may* cause cancer. (July 2023) As with all things, moderation is key. I'd imagine drinking anything (coffee, alcohol, energy drinks etc) to excess could cause a multitude of health conditions. I would be interested to know Dr. Mike's thoughts on the news reports coming from the WHO rhis week though.

I've been drinking tons of diet soda every day since the 80's. It definitely hasn't caused me to gain weight. I've literally been single digit body fat, slamming them all day long. I've also never had a cavity. People always tell me it's bad for me and regular would be better lol

Honestly my main reason for not drinking diet soda is it is disguising. Also I had a teacher who only drank diet soda, 2 liters at a time and weighed over 300 pounds. That was his main drink. I am sure what he ate didn't help as well. Once in a great while, like maybe 4 times a year I might have a soda. I prefer water, tea, coffee and sugar free drinks. I have heard a few studies that diet soda makes you more hungry so most people end up eating more because the stuff in diet soda gives false signals by the way of empty calories that you are hungry. Honestly I noticed cutting out soda makes soda taste gross after a while.

Those artifical sweeteners reek havoc on your gut.

Dude. I discovered Diet Root Beer this week. Holy fuck. I miss root beer incredibly. Now it's guilt free. So fucking amazing.

11:27 from their website Regular Coke: 16oz-210C; 20oz-270C; 29oz-390C; 38oz-510C Diet Coke: All sizes-0C

Zero sugar sprite is a God send. It has no caffeine, which I'm trying to cut out since I tend to go overboard with it, zero sugar (obviously), is fizzy, and still has that lemon lime flavor. I personally think it loses the least from using aspertain rather than sugar.

I was one of the "water boys" before but my wife recently convinced me to try coke zero and mountain dew zero sugar; Now, I keep having this repeated thought: "Is this magic or something? There's no way it's 0 calories" I'm cutting right now and diet soda actually does help with hunger some because of the carbonation. The carbonation fills my stomach enough to mask my hunger for a while.

FYI you can replace chips with sunflower seeds. There's still a fuckton of calories in those but they: 1. Are nutritious, have actual protein & fiber vs empty calories from frying oils. ( though they have chip variants that are also pretty good ) 2. Take a zillion hours to eat cause you need to shell them. 3. Give you that salt/ artificial flavouring fix at the cost of like ... 200 ... maybe 300 calories. 4. Are fun to shell with your teeth. Drawbacks are that you make a mess so it's a a desk/table food. Other than that though, it replicates the soda/chips experience somewhat faithfully without letting you casually blow 1000 calories on a snack. ( with potato chips, the chips suck, the flavouring is why you eat it anyway)

Sample size of one and this is purely anecdotal, but as a young adult, I drank a TON of regular soda, like at least 2 liters per day. I was about 230lbs at 5'7" at 20. By the time I was 27, I was 260lbs. I started counting calories (including from soda and soft drinks) at 27 and by 28 I was down to about 170 lbs. I'm 41 now and while my diet habits have varied I've been nearly religious about never drinking anything that contains sugar. I weigh 185 lbs and wear the same waist size in pants that I did in jr high, though a big part of the reason why I've been able to consistently avoid sugary drinks is because I typically drink a ton of diet soda now. I went from being the fat guy with " the slow metabolism" to the " guy who just never seems to gain weight", and while I don't necesarily tell anyone "you should drink diet soda", any time anyone asks "how did you lose that weight?" Or " how come you never seem to gain weight?", the first thing I always respond with is, "you would not believe how many calories you probably drink". Diet soda is definitely the key to me staying at a healthy weight, especially since I have slways disliked plain water for some reason.

Asspartameee