> In some prospective cohort studies, associations have been reported between artificially sweetened beverage consumption and increased risk of obesity or weigh

> In some prospective cohort studies, associations have been reported between artificially sweetened beverage consumption and increased risk of obesity or weight gain.8228586 Low calorie sweeteners (from beverages, table top sweeteners, and foods) were associated with obesity in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey87 and abdominal obesity in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing.88 A cross-sectional study also found that consumers of diet soft drinks had greater waist circumference.8 It took a LONG time to get to the actual meat of the question. The whole time I was reading the study I was asking myself "wait how are they controlling for the uncountable ways to increase CVD risk". I think they answered their own question. It's entirely plausible that the correlation between obesity and CVD is the actual explanatory variable and correlation they found is spurious. More studies should be done for sure. But from my non-biology view point often times occam's razor is better than a very expensive study. In this case we already know there is a strong correlation between diet drinks and obesity. Not because of the diet drinks, per se, but because a shocking number of people don't realize that drinking a can of diet coke doesn't undo the pizza you just ate.