28 years of scientific studies have found artificial sweeteners stimulate your appetite, increase your cravings for more sweets and bread, increase your risk of diabetes and promote fat and weight gain. If you are a long-time reader of my weekly newsletter, you may have read my 2012 articles on this subject.
If you are drinking diet drinks with artificial sweeteners, eating diabetic sugar-free snacks with them or even chewing gum sweetened with them, stop it. Even sugar is better than artificial sweeteners. And if you know of someone who is using artificial sweeteners, send them a link to this article.
Here is a graph showing the increase in artificial sweeteners paralleling obesity rates:

Here are just a few of the recent studies showing artificial sweeteners actually increase the risk for obesity and diabetes which are the main reasons people choose diet sodas and snacks.

  • Public Library of Science, October 14, 2014:

    “Aspartame resulted in [elevated blood sugar] and [a reduced] ability to respond to insulin … and may explain the increased risk of [diabetes] with regular Aspartame use….”

  • Nature September 17, 2014:

    Seven people who did not use artificial sweeteners used the equivalent of 10-12 single-dose packets of artificial sweeteners daily for one week. Some became pre-diabetic within a few days.
    “… Artificial sweeteners are among the most widely used food additives worldwide…. Here we demonstrate that consumption of commonly used [artificial sweeteners] drives the development of [diabetes and pre-diabetes].

  • Appetite January 1, 2012, pages 203-207:

    29 rats were fed yogurt sweetened with sugar, saccharin or aspartame. Measurements were made weekly for 12 weeks. Results showed both saccharin and aspartame resulted in increased weight gain compared to sugar, even though both groups ate an equal number of calories.

Grateful acknowledgment to Dr. Mercola for the information used in this post.
Below are links to other articles I have written on diet sodas and artificial sweeteners: