Latest news with #MarionNestle
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday praised a company that makes $7-a-pop meals that are delivered directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. He even thanked Mom's Meals for sending taxpayer-funded meals 'without additives" to the homes of sick or elderly Americans. The spreads include chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties. 'This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,' Kennedy said in the video, posted to his official health secretary account, after he toured the company's Oklahoma facility last week. But an Associated Press review of Mom's Meals menu, including the ingredients and nutrition labels, shows that the company's offerings are the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed foods that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick. The meals contain chemical additives that would render them impossible to recreate at home in your kitchen, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and food policy expert, who reviewed the menu for The AP. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats, she said. 'It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,' Nestle said. 'What's so sad is that they don't have to be this way. Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course they cost more.' Mom's Meals do not have the artificial, petroleum dyes that Kennedy has pressured companies to remove from products, she noted. Mom's Meals said in an emailed response that its food products 'do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods.' The company does not use synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, certain sweeteners or synthetic preservatives that are banned in Europe, said Teresa Roof, a company spokeswoman. The meals are a 'healthy alternative' to what many people would find in their grocery stores, said Andrew Nixon, U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman, in response to questions about Mom's Meals. Mom's Meals is one of several companies across the U.S. that deliver 'medically tailored' at-home meals. The meal programs are covered by Medicaid for some enrollees, including people who are sick with cancer or diabetes, as well as some older Americans who are enrolled in certain Medicare health insurance plans. Patients recently discharged from the hospital can also have the meals delivered, according to the company's website. It's unclear how much federal taxpayers spend on providing meals through Medicaid and Medicare every year. An investigation by STAT news last year found that some states were spending millions of dollars to provide medically tailored meals to Medicaid enrollees that were marketed as healthy and 'dietician approved." But many companies served up meals loaded with salt, fat or sugar — all staples of an unhealthy American's diet, the report concluded. Defining ultraprocessed foods can be tricky. Most U.S. foods are processed, whether it's by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. Foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn't duplicate in a home kitchen are considered the most processed. Kennedy has said healthier U.S. diets are key to his vision to 'Make America Healthy Again.' His call for Americans to increase whole foods in their diets has helped Kennedy build his unique coalition of Trump loyalists and suburban moms who have branded themselves as 'MAHA." In a recent social media post where he criticized the vast amount of ultraprocessed foods in American diets, Kennedy urged Americans to make healthier choices. 'This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms — the freedom that comes from being healthy," Kennedy said. — Aleccia reported from Temecula, Calif.
The Independent
5 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday praised a company that makes $7-a-pop meals that are delivered directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. He even thanked Mom's Meals for sending taxpayer-funded meals 'without additives" to the homes of sick or elderly Americans. The spreads include chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties. 'This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,' Kennedy said in the video, posted to his official health secretary account, after he toured the company's Oklahoma facility last week. But an Associated Press review of Mom's Meals menu, including the ingredients and nutrition labels, shows that the company's foods are the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed food that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick. The meals contain chemical additives that would render them impossible to recreate at home in your kitchen, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and food policy expert, who reviewed the menu for The AP. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats, she said. 'It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,' Nestle said. 'What's so sad is that they don't have to be this way. Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course they cost more.' Mom's Meals do not have the artificial, petroleum dyes that Kennedy has pressured companies to remove from products, she noted. Mom's Meals said in an emailed response that its food products 'do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods.' The company does not use synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, certain sweeteners or synthetic preservatives that are banned in Europe, said Teresa Roof, a company spokeswoman. The meals are a 'healthy alternative' to what many people would find in their grocery stores, said Andrew Nixon, U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman, in response to questions about Mom's Meals. Mom's Meals is one of several companies across the U.S. that deliver 'medically tailored' at-home meals. The meal programs are covered by Medicaid for some enrollees, including people who are sick with cancer or diabetes, as well as some older Americans who are enrolled in certain Medicare health insurance plans. Patients recently discharged from the hospital can also have the meals delivered, according to the company's website. It's unclear how much federal taxpayers spend on providing meals through Medicaid and Medicare every year. An investigation by STAT news last year found that some states were spending millions of dollars to provide medically tailored meals to Medicaid enrollees that were marketed as healthy and 'dietician approved." But many companies served up meals loaded with salt, fat or sugar — all staples of an unhealthy American's diet, the report concluded. Defining ultraprocessed foods can be tricky. Most U.S. foods are processed, whether it's by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. Foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn't duplicate in a home kitchen are considered the most processed. Kennedy has said healthier U.S. diets are key to his vision to 'Make America Healthy Again.' His call for Americans to increase whole foods in their diets has helped Kennedy build his unique coalition of Trump loyalists and suburban moms who have branded themselves as 'MAHA." In a recent social media post where he criticized the vast amount of ultraprocessed foods in American diets, Kennedy urged Americans to make healthier choices. 'This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms — the freedom that comes from being healthy," Kennedy said. —
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Health
- Associated Press
RFK Jr. promoted a food company he says will make Americans healthy. Their meals are ultraprocessed
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday praised a company that makes $7-a-pop meals that are delivered directly to the homes of Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. He even thanked Mom's Meals for sending taxpayer-funded meals 'without additives' to the homes of sick or elderly Americans. The spreads include chicken bacon ranch pasta for dinner and French toast sticks with fruit or ham patties. 'This is really one of the solutions for making our country healthy again,' Kennedy said in the video, posted to his official health secretary account, after he toured the company's Oklahoma facility last week. But an Associated Press review of Mom's Meals menu, including the ingredients and nutrition labels, shows that the company's foods are the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed food that Kennedy routinely criticizes for making people sick. The meals contain chemical additives that would render them impossible to recreate at home in your kitchen, said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and food policy expert, who reviewed the menu for The AP. Many menu items are high in sodium, and some are high in sugar or saturated fats, she said. 'It is perfectly possible to make meals like this with real foods and no ultra-processing additives but every one of the meals I looked at is loaded with such additives,' Nestle said. 'What's so sad is that they don't have to be this way. Other companies are able to produce much better products, but of course they cost more.' Mom's Meals do not have the artificial, petroleum dyes that Kennedy has pressured companies to remove from products, she noted. Mom's Meals said in an emailed response that its food products 'do not include ingredients that are commonly found in ultra-processed foods.' The company does not use synthetic food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, certain sweeteners or synthetic preservatives that are banned in Europe, said Teresa Roof, a company spokeswoman. The meals are a 'healthy alternative' to what many people would find in their grocery stores, said Andrew Nixon, U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman, in response to questions about Mom's Meals. Mom's Meals is one of several companies across the U.S. that deliver 'medically tailored' at-home meals. The meal programs are covered by Medicaid for some enrollees, including people who are sick with cancer or diabetes, as well as some older Americans who are enrolled in certain Medicare health insurance plans. Patients recently discharged from the hospital can also have the meals delivered, according to the company's website. It's unclear how much federal taxpayers spend on providing meals through Medicaid and Medicare every year. An investigation by STAT news last year found that some states were spending millions of dollars to provide medically tailored meals to Medicaid enrollees that were marketed as healthy and 'dietician approved.' But many companies served up meals loaded with salt, fat or sugar — all staples of an unhealthy American's diet, the report concluded. Defining ultraprocessed foods can be tricky. Most U.S. foods are processed, whether it's by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. Foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn't duplicate in a home kitchen are considered the most processed. Kennedy has said healthier U.S. diets are key to his vision to 'Make America Healthy Again.' His call for Americans to increase whole foods in their diets has helped Kennedy build his unique coalition of Trump loyalists and suburban moms who have branded themselves as 'MAHA.' In a recent social media post where he criticized the vast amount of ultraprocessed foods in American diets, Kennedy urged Americans to make healthier choices. 'This country has lost the most basic of all freedoms — the freedom that comes from being healthy,' Kennedy said. — Aleccia reported from Temecula, Calif.
BBC News
30-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Robert Kennedy Jr: Could he really revolutionise US healthcare?
There's a saying that Robert F Kennedy Jr is very fond of. He used it on the day he was confirmed as US health secretary. "A healthy person has a thousand dreams, a sick person only has one," he said as he stood in the Oval Office. "60% of our population has only one dream – that they get better."The most powerful public health official in the US has made it his mission to tackle what he describes as an epidemic of chronic illness in America, a catch-all term that covers everything from obesity and diabetes to heart diagnosis that the US is experiencing an epidemic of ill health is a view shared by many healthcare experts in the Kennedy also has a history of promoting unfounded health conspiracies, from the suggestion that Covid-19 targeted and spared certain ethnic groups to the idea that chemicals in tap water could be making children after taking office, he slashed thousands of jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services and eliminated whole programmes at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)."On the one hand, it's extraordinarily exciting to have a federal official take on chronic disease," says Marion Nestle, a retired professor of public health at New York University. "On the other, the dismantling of the federal public health apparatus cannot possibly help with the agenda." Kennedy is reviled by parts of the medical and scientific communities. He was described to me as an "evil nihilist" by Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins even some of Kennedy's critics accept that he is bringing drive and ambition to areas of healthcare that have been neglected. Is it possible that the man who attracts so much criticism - and in some quarters, hate - might actually start making America healthy again? American 'kids swimming in a toxic soup' There's one industry that Kennedy had set his sights on long before joining the Trump administration: multinational food companies have, he has said, poisoned American children with artificial additives already banned in other countries."We have a generation of kids who are swimming around in a toxic soup right now," he claimed on Fox News last first target was food colourings, with a promise to phase out the use of petroleum-based dyes by the end of with names like 'Green No. 3' and 'Red No. 40', have been linked to hyperactivity and behavioural issues in children, and cancer in some animal studies."What's happening in this administration is really interesting," says Vani Hari, a food blogger and former Democrat who is now an influential voice in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. "MAHA is all about how do we get people off processed food, and one way to do that is to regulate the chemicals companies use."There are some signs this pressure may be paying food giant PepsiCo, for example, said in a recent trading update that Lays crisps and Tostitos snacks "will be out of artificial colours by the end of this year". Kennedy struck a voluntary agreement with the food industry but it only came after individual states from California to West Virginia had already started introducing their own laws."In the case of food dyes, companies will have to act because states are banning them [anyway] and they won't want to have to formulate separate products for separate states," says Prof Nestle, an author and longtime critic of the recently Kennedy has signalled he backs a radical food bill in Texas that could target additives in some products ranging from sweets, to cereals and fizzy drinks Packets may soon have to carry a high-contrast label stating, "WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom."The Consumer Brands Association, which represents some of the largest food manufacturers, opposes this, saying the ingredients used in the US food supply are safe and have been rigorously difficult to imagine that kind of regulation could ever be signed off in a state like Texas without the political backing of Kennedy and President Trump. Is RFK 'drifting into misinformation'? "He can't change everything in a short amount of time, but I think the issue of food dyes will soon be history," says Ms Hari, who testified before the Senate on this subject last others worry that the flurry of announcements on additives is tinkering around the edges of what is a much wider problem."While some of these individual actions are important, they are a drop in the ocean in the larger context of chronic disease," argues Nicola Hawley, professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. "There is a focus on personal choice and access to natural food, but that completely ignores the big, systematic and structural barriers [to healthy eating] like poverty and really aggressive marketing of junk food to children."The US government, for example, still heavily subsidises crops including corn and soya beans, key ingredients in processed is now updating the US national dietary guidelines, an important document used to shape everything from school meals to assistance programmes for the elderly. A reduction in added sugars and a switch to more locally-sourced whole foods is expected. Plus he has called on states to ban millions of Americans from using food stamps, a welfare benefit, to buy junk food or sugar-sweetened has also backed local officials who want to stop adding fluoride to drinking water, describing it as a "dangerous neurotoxin". It is used in some countries, including in parts of the US, to prevent tooth decay, and whilst there is still debate about the possible health effects, the NHS says a review of the risks has found "no convincing evidence" to support any concerns. Other fluoride research has found the mineral only has detrimental health effects at extremely high Hawley also argues there is a tension between Kennedy's "important message" on food and chronic disease, and what she feels is a lack of policies backed by solid scientific evidence."You've got this challenge of him drifting into misinformation about the links between additives and chronic disease, or environmental risk factors," she argues. "And that really just undermines the science." 'He is not anti vax, he is anti corruption' That tension is even clearer when it comes to another of Kennedy's big are still listed on the CDC website as one of the great public health achievements of the last century, alongside family planning and tobacco control. They prevent countless cases of disease and disability each year, and save millions of lives, according to the American Medical though, is the best known vaccine sceptic in the country. The activist group he ran for eight years, Children's Health Defense, repeatedly questioned the safety and efficacy of 2019 he described the disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield as the "most unfairly maligned person in modern history" and told a crowd in Washington that "any just society" would be building statues of was struck off the UK medical register in 2010 after his research falsely linked the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine to autism, leading to a spike in measles cases in England and some other countries. Over the last year, Kennedy has repeatedly insisted he is not "anti-vax" and will not be "taking away anybody's vaccines". Faced with a deadly measles outbreak in unvaccinated children in west Texas, he posted that the MMR was "the most effective way to prevent the spread of the disease".In other comments though, he described vaccination as a "personal choice" and emphasised alternative treatments such as vitamin A supplements.A huge deal with the drugmaker Moderna to develop a vaccine to combat bird flu in humans was scrapped, and new rules were brought in which could mean some vaccines need extra testing before they can be updated each May, Kennedy posted a video on social media saying the government would no longer endorse Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant some doctors point out that reducing eligibility would simply bring the US into line with other countries, including the UK, where free Covid boosters are restricted to those over 75 or with weakened immune systems. "They are really just aligning themselves with everyone else, which is not in any way outrageous," says Prof Adam Finn, a paediatric doctor and one of the UK's leading experts on vaccines. Then in June, Kennedy suddenly sacked all 17 members of the influential expert committee, which advises the CDC on vaccine eligibility. He accused the panel of being "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and rubber-stamping new vaccines without proper scrutiny.A new, much smaller, committee handpicked by the administration now has the power to change, or even drop, critical recommendations to immunise Americans for certain diseases, as well as shape the childhood vaccination programme."It underscores just how much we are backsliding now," says Dr Amesh Adalja, the infectious disease doctor and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University. "I think increasingly the panel will become irrelevant if RFK Jr is able to shape it the way he wants to."The new panel made its first decision last week, voting to stop recommending a small number of flu vaccines that still contain the preservative thimerosal, something Kennedy wrote a book about in critics say that a new era of vaccine policy has arrived in the US. Whilst his supporters say no subject, including vaccine safety, should be considered off-limits."Everything has to be open to discussion and Bobby Kennedy is not anti-vaccine, he's anti-corruption," argues Tony Lyons, who co-founded the political action committee that supported his independent presidential campaign."It's about being pro-science, pro-capitalism, and believing you have an obligation to the public to do a thorough job of researching any product that is put in the arms of 40 million children." The autism puzzle Weeks after Kennedy took office news emerged that the CDC would open a research project into the link between vaccines and Wakefield's now-discredited Lancet paper in 1998, which linked autism to the MMR vaccine given to children, there have been numerous international studies that have looked at this in detail and found no reputable link."There is nothing to debate any more, it has been settled by science," says Eric Fombonne, an autism researcher and professor emeritus at Oregon Health & Science though, has hired David Geier, a noted vaccine sceptic, to look again at the autism is widely understood to be a lifelong spectrum condition. It can include those with high support needs who are non-speaking, and those with above-average intelligence who might struggle with social interaction or researchers believe a rise in cases over decades is down to a broadening in the way children with autism are defined, as well as improved awareness, understanding and in April, Kennedy dismissed that idea, describing autism as "preventable". He blamed a mysterious environmental trigger for the increase in eight-year-olds being diagnosed."This is coming from an environmental toxin… [in] our air, our water, our medicines, our food," he said. He pledged a massive research effort to find that cause by September and "eliminate those exposures".Dr Fombonne strongly disputes this. "It is nonsensical and shows a complete absence of understanding," he says. "We have known for many years that autism has a strong genetic component."In the same speech, Kennedy said that many autistic children will never "pay taxes, never hold a job. They'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted." Many in the autism community are angry. "What we're seeing here is a fear-based rhetoric and [a] misleading narrative that is causing harm and perpetuating stigma," says Kristyn Roth from the Autism Society of some parents of autistic children are more May, a writer who is the mother of a child with autism, wrote in The New York Times that she found herself "nodding along as Mr Kennedy spoke about the grim realities of profound autism"."His remarks echo the reality and pain of a subset of parents of children with autism who feel left out of much of the conversation," she administration has since watered down that promise to find the reasons for autism by September but it is still promising detailed findings of its research by March 2026. An imperfect messenger? Ultimately, Robert Kennedy has only been in the job a matter of months. Already though he's asking some big questions – particularly about chronic disease – which have never been asked in the same way by a health secretary the first time that issue has both political attention and bipartisan support in the is clearly not afraid to take on what he perceives to be vested interests in the food and drug industries, and he is still firmly supported by President Lyons, who has published books by Kennedy, calls him "uniquely qualified" for the most powerful job in US public health. "He's a corruption fighter. He has seen what all these kinds of companies do, not just pharmaceutical companies but food companies, and he wants them to do a better job," he Kennedy's background as an environmental lawyer taking on big business and the establishment has clearly shaped the views he holds Jerold Mande, a former federal food policy advisor in three administrations, worries that Kennedy's own views and biases will mean some of the solutions he's reaching for are predetermined and unsupported by the a professor of nutrition at Harvard, Prof Mande describes Kennedy as an imperfect messenger and says he has "great concerns" about the administration's approach to aspects of public health, from tobacco control to vaccination, where there is "no question that what he's doing is going to result in enormous harm.""At a high level, I'm optimistic but you still need to come up with the right answers, and those answers can only be found through science," says Prof Mande."We now have a shot and he's provided that by making it a priority. But it's how you use that shot that's going to determine whether it's a success or not. And that is where the jury is still out." Top image credit: Chip Somodevilla / Staff via Getty BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
The controversial drink that may be better than water for weight loss
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.' 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. 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. 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 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.'
