That's just a correlation. People with type 2 diabetes are overwhelmingly overweight. Perhaps they were trying to cut their calorie intake, that seems plausible

That's just a correlation. People with type 2 diabetes are overwhelmingly overweight. Perhaps they were trying to cut their calorie intake, that seems plausible to me. There's a pretty clear correlation to insulin resistance too. Problem is of course correlation isn't causation. We don't yet understand the action mechanism. Essentially the WHO's recommendation can be boiled down to "Overweight people sure drink a lot of diet soda, but they don't seem to be thin. Maybe it isn't helping?" Well, maybe it isn't. Maybe it has no effect either way. Maybe it helps cut down calorie intake versus sugar, but increases cravings elsewhere. Maybe it tricks the body into thinking you ate something sweet, releasing insulin unnecessarily, and thus causing insulin resistance (that's my guess). Or maybe someone correlated data and drew completely incorrect conclusions based on their own bias. We don't yet know. That said as of right now, it does seem prudent to eliminate or at least cut down on artificial sweeteners. But I could have said the same thing 20 years ago about avoiding eggs to drop your cholesterol, and that would have been wrong. Insert shrug emoji here.