Project 458283

High intake of sugar-sweetened pop has been linked with excess weight gain and an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Because of this, health experts have recommended that people replace their pop with water. As a replacement, non-nutritive sweetened beverages, or diet pop, are a sweeter alternative to water. However, the role of diet pop to replace regular pop has not been addressed in dietary guidelines. Health Canada has said that non-nutritive or artificial sweeteners are safe for use, but new research suggests that through changes in gut bacteria, non-nutritive sweeteners may actually increase the risk of the above-mentioned diseases. Not all research agrees on this topic; human studies looked at the relationship between a very high amount of a single non-nutritive sweetener in a capsule and the risk for diabetes via the gut bacteria. Considering we consume whole foods, and rarely non-nutritive sweeteners on their own, looking at whole beverages is more applicable as a "real world" replacement. To find out what are the health effects of diet pop to replace pop, we are doing a CIHR-funded, randomized controlled study on the effect of replacing regular pop with diet pop or water on the risk for diabetes and the gut microbiome: the STOP Sugars NOW Trial. Volunteers were asked to participate in the three treatments (pop, diet pop and water) in a random order for four-weeks each. This study will inform public health guidelines on the best replacement for pop for health, and it will shed light on the effects of diet pop on the risk for diabetes via gut bacteria, and how these compare to water. Overall, we aim to help people reduce the intake of pop, in the hopes that it will lead to reductions in disease and obesity.