Join Dr. Martin in today's episode of The Doctor Is In Podcast.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well good morning everyone. Once again, welcome to another live this morning and nice to have you come on with us. For those of you who can come on live, we always appreciate that. Nice to have an audience and we sure enjoy you guys. So good morning everyone. Thanks for coming on. We got a great program here today. Someone asked a question about diet soda and I want to refer you back to a study. It was done in 2016. I had to go look it up again because it had been a while since I talked about it. Anywho, it was a Danish study in 2016 for six months long. And it's interesting. Let's break this down a little wee bit here. So nothing changed on their diet. So this is a six month study. Nothing changed in their food. So they ate normally. No changes to their diet. And then they took a group and they were going to have a liter, a liter of water, a liter of soda, a liter of full fat milk and a liter of diet soda.
So they took this group, six months, no change in their diet, and one part of the group was given soda. Pepsi, Coke, whatever they gave them, diet soda for another group. Another group just drank water. The only difference water and the other one, full fat milk. Okay? Here's the results after six months, it was incredible, okay? And it's been a long time since I talked about, well, it was done in 2016. I talked about this. I remember talking about this study on my radio show before I did podcasting, and this is the results. So they ate normally. Remember it wasn't food, it was just what they drank. Those who drank a liter of soda a day, they gained 22 pounds in six months. Incredible. When you drink fructose guys, not a good thing. God, you to eat fruit, not drink it. So be very, very careful. Six months, nothing changed except what they drank. And they drank a liter of soda a day and the group on average gained 22 pounds, in six months.
You want to look at our society today? That's a huge issue. And like I talked to you about people that go into these coffee shops, Starbucks and whatever, and they get their lattes and it's full of sugar. They have no idea what they're doing with that body. 22 pounds of weight gain in six months just with one change and that was drinking soda. The other group drank full fat milk, and you know what happened? Nothing. No weight gain. Okay? The other group drank only water. Oh, how often I got people in my office to change a habit, just start drinking water. They lost that group. The only difference, one liter of water. That's not enough, by the way. You need two liters, but they weren't drinking water. And this group started to drink water. They lost five pounds in six months. But you know me, I never even talk about water and weight loss.
And for those, let's just do it again because it's always worth, oh, they only lost five pounds Dr. Martin. What a waste of time. As I show you, five pounds of fat, a foot long and six inches wide. Only lost five pounds, Dr. Martin. I heard that in my office a lot. Okay? Especially from women. I only lost five pounds, my husband lost 20. But five pounds guys, when you lose five pounds of fat, you have no idea metabolically how good that is for you. So that group, they just drank water. That was the only difference. This was a very controlled study. They lost five pounds.
Now let me answer the question about diet soda, okay? Because one group, the only difference was they drank diet soda for six months and they gained 3.5 pounds. Why? People ask me that. I've been asked now, I told you guys this story. My dad found out he was a diabetic in 1968. I was 16 years old. My dad found out he was a diabetic. It changed his life. It changed my life. Little did I know when he came home with that diagnosis of diabetes, all I knew is my grandfather died of diabetes.I didn't know anything about diabetes. It was very rare in those days by the way. My dad changed his life, changed his habits the day after and I'm not kidding you, he started exercising. We didn't even call it jogging. As far as I know, my dad was the first guy on the planet to go for a run. He started running on the spot and my mother kicked him out of the house like, whatcha are doing? You're going to ruin my carpets. Okay? I think we had shag carpets in those days. I don't remember exactly, but my mom, oh, what are you doing? You nutcase. My dad.
And I'm telling you, it wasn't maybe a month or two months later, I said, dad and I was in high school. Wake me up, I'm going running with you. I couldn't even walk around the block, nevermind run. He got me going. But I watched my dad change his diet and one of the things he did in 1968 is drink, diet pop. I said, dad, you're drinking urine, Tab. What was the other one? I think it was called Fresca or something like that. I don't know. It was terrible stuff. He said, well son, it's sugar diabetes. I can't have any more sugar. What? Yeah, I can't. No more sugar for me. Okay? I didn't understand all of it, but I'll tell you, when I got to school, when I started taking nutrition, I was being taught something wrong in school. And I said, nah, they're wrong. I watched my dad because by then in the mid seventies, they were talking already about moderation and that even diabetics, which was still rare, moderation on sugar. My dad said, no, it's sugar diabetes, son. You can't have sugar. Stop eating it.
And guys, just before I continue on the study, I wrote this in one of my books a long time ago. It's the tale of two men. Remember The Tale of Two Cities, right? Well, this was the tale of two men because I had my father diabetic, and you know how your memory is maybe skewed a little bit. It seemed to me it was on the same date, but it was very close if it wasn't the same day. I had a very good friend of mine in school. His father got the diagnosis of diabetes. His name was Ed. So here's my dad and here's my friend's dad. Ed diagnosed with diabetes on possibly the same day. It was at the same time. How's that? And one of them, my father took that diagnosis seriously. He changed his life immediately. My mother would make us a meal. I'm not kidding you, and make my father a meal. My father was in practice. He'd come home after seeing patients. Always late. My mom would make him a steak. And I'm not kidding you, it was steak every night for my dad.
This is in the sixties, guys. There's nobody in the world that ate more steak than my father. I watched it. My dad was my hero. And my dad would talk to me about sugar and how destructive it was. And there was my good friend in school, his father, no changes, never changed his diet. Never started exercising, didn't do any of it. I know that because I saw him on a daily basis just about because my friend, we live right beside each other, just about. No changes and I think it was five years, he died. Now listen, there's no guarantee you can die anyway, but you know what I'm saying, guys? My dad, he shouldn't have been drinking diet pop either, but in those days, I mean he said, no, I'm not going to have. My dad liked his rum & Coke. He liked rye and ginger ale. My dad didn't have that no more. He just completely changed his lifestyle. I watched him do it.
And this is why I was so passionate and why I had to undo. Like Mark Twain says. You know what education is? Undoing what you've learned. I went to school, I learned like the rest of them. We did a lot of good things in nutrition, studied a lot of good things in nutrition and natural medicine, a lot of good things. But their diet, nah, I'm sorry. A lot of it was get away from meat and vegetables are better than meat. I learned all that in school. I knew that wasn't true. I just knew it wasn't true. So this Danish study kind of interesting, isn't it? Six months, 22 pounds drinking soda. It was amazing to me. The results I used to get in the office when I saw patients, especially with either obesity, fatty liver, diabetes, just getting people to change what they drank.
I remember doing this with a lot of men. I said, you see, I'm watching you. I know your numbers. I got your A1C. I'm going to watch and see what happens. Trust me. You put your trust in me. You waited several months to see me. Now I'm going to tell you what to do. Go home and do it. I can't go home with you. But one of the changes I want you to make is what you drink every day. Okay? So what are you going to do? Go home and drink water. I don't like water. I don't care. I really don't. You need to trust me. Drink water. I said you like coffee? I love coffee. Good. Drink that too. I want you to drink water and coffee. What? Water and coffee. And I want you to change your habits with coffee. I don't want you to put any sugar in it. What? You heard me? It takes 21 days to form a habit. Now listen, Linda, and it wasn't usually Linda, I had to talk to. It was men. It was Larry. Listen, Larry, cut out the sugar. Don't drink sugar. You got the memo. You'll thank me later.
So I want you to go home and change what you drink. Dr. Martin, I like Tropicana. I don't care. You can't have it. Stop it. No Tropicana, the number one drink in North America. Orange juice. Stop it. It ain't good for you. I don't care if it's freshly squeezed. Stop drinking juice. Drink water, drink coffee. Coffee's going to help with diabetics. See, I used to teach them this coffee will help, especially if you have it with your meal. Coffee acts like metformin, which is a medication to regulate blood sugar that they give to diabetics. I says, well, I want to give you a drug that isn't a drug. It's a drink. You like coffee? Oh, I love coffee. Yeah, me too. Now drink it with your meal and you will regulate your blood sugar. It helps. I was light years ahead of people with that.
I was probably one of the first guys on radio to tell people to drink coffee. When everybody was telling you the coffee was acidic. When everyone was telling you the coffee was a diuretic. When everyone was telling you the coffee was no good for you. I never, ever, ever wavered from that. I said, no, you don't know what you're talking about. It's one of God's gifts to humanity. Isn't that wonderful? You can drink it. And I said, you'll form habits if you get away from putting sugar in your coffee. Trust me, in 21 days from now, you'll not want one little bit of sugar in your coffee. You just got to get there. You got to suck it up buttercup. You're a diabetic. Your A1C ain't good. Stop. See guys, I was very much motivated by my father. I watched him. Danish study. Danish study. Six months. What a change. 22 pounds with soda.
Now let me give you some negative on diet soda. My dad didn't know this back in the day, okay? He didn't really know it. We know it today. People used to ask me. I'm telling you in the seventies and the eighties and the nineties, and Dr. Martin, what about diet soda? Well, it's probably a little bit better. I used to hear this too. Oh yeah. Well, regular soda is better than diet soda. No, it's not. Okay. Not even close. Okay, let me just say that out at first. You can't drink 13, 14 teaspoons of sugar, soda without that changing you metabolically big time. Okay? But diet soda and the research is in now, okay? When it first came out and for several years, it was almost impossible to get any findings on what. All we know is diet soda, you didn't get the sugar in it. Okay?
Now, there was aspartame and all the stuff they put in there. I always said, eh, you know what? Hold your nose. I don't like it. But we weren't exactly sure what happens when you drink diet soda, okay? And this study in 2016 just said, if you drink diet soda and nothing else changes, you're going to gain weight. And I always sort of knew that because I watched many, many patients, they drink diet soda instead of drinking water. And they gain weight even with the diet soda. Now, not like soda. I tell you guys that I got thousands of people off of drinking juice and drinking soda. I got thousands of people over the years. I said, I'm going to send you home and you're going to form a habit of changing your drinking. No more pop, no more soda. No more juice. No apple juice. No orange juice. Oh, Dr. Martin, I got to have a cranberry. No, you don't. Drink water, drink coffee. You can put cream in your coffee. You can't put milk in your coffee. You can put fat in your coffee if you have to. Okay?
And I was very adamant about that. Very adamant about drinking. And if you were on the reset for 30 days, you didn't have any alcohol, by the way, either. I was emptying your liver, can't drink alcohol and empty your liver. So I said, no, no, you got to cut the alcohol out for 30 days. Okay? You want to have a drink after that? That's up to you. Okay, now listen, what does diet soda do? Okay, now the research is in, okay, now the research is in. This is surprising, but it elevates insulin. Now, not like ordinary sugar does, but it's still elevates. You still need your pancreas to secrete insulin. Not as much, of course, but nonetheless, with diet soda, you're secreting insulin. What does that do? Remember, insulin is like a jail guard, okay? And fat can't escape. When you've got insulin in your blood, it can't escape because insulin is a storage hormone, okay? It's a storage hormone.
And then if you drink enough diet soda, you're going to develop insulin resistance along with a crappy diet. Because a lot of people, we always used to joke about, I used to joke about this on my radio show. People go into a restaurant and they'll order french fries and a diet Coke. That's really helpful. Okay? I like french fries too, by the way, but I'm under no illusion that they're good for me. Okay? It's almost a little bit comical. But anyway, here's what we know with diet soda. One. Insulin is elevated. Again, not like you're having a meal of crappy carbs. That's worse. Not like you're having a regular soda. That's worse for sure, as far as insulin goes. Yeah, but you're still using insulin. You drink water? No insulin. You drink coffee. It's actually the reverse. You become less insulin resistant. You don't need any insulin for coffee. Nada. Zero. Water, no insulin needed.
What's the biggest problem in our society today? Insulin resistance leading to metabolic syndrome, which leads to heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, autoimmune, and yada, yada yada. So when you use diet soda, you're using insulin too. You're getting fat storage with that. They go together. Fat storage. Insulin is a jail keeper. Let me show you. I did this back in 2011. Well, there's a traffic cop, here it is here. Okay? I don't know how well you can see that. But you have fat is behind bars and insulin is the jail guard. Okay? That's the picture of it. Okay? Fat is behind bars and insulin is the jail guard. So when you drink diet soda, fat can't escape. Got it? And then thirdly, it disrupts your microbiome.
Now, we've known that for about 10 or 15 years. I remember reporting this on my radio show. The research was in on the microbiome. And people didn't even know what I was talking about. But my audience did. The microbiome, the war, the invisible war between your good and bad bacteria. And with diet soda, you disrupt the gut. It disrupts the ecosystem in your gut. It disrupts it. Not as bad as antibiotic might. Not as bad as sugar does, especially fructose. But it does it nonetheless. It does it nonetheless. It can be a contributor with the disruption of the microbiome. It can be a contributor to leaky gut. Interesting study, isn't it? That Danish, that what to drink, drink water. You got 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Most people, they don't know it.
And we don't talk about it. Well, I do, but it's unbelievable how little medicine talks about the importance of drinking water. I can't get over it. We're in 2025. You're unwell. They hook you up to an IV in the hospital. Why? Because you're dehydrated. But they don't tell you, oh, by the way, you should be drinking more water. You need two liters a day. You need 64 ounces of that stuff. Your blood is like molasses. No wonder you're having high blood pressure. No wonder your kidneys don't work properly. No wonder you're not flushing out your toxins. You're not drinking water. And no wonder you're not losing weight. Because folks that just started drinking water, they never had drank water before. They lost five pounds in six months. Just water. That's it. No other change. Didn't even change their diet.
So three reasons not to drink diet soda. Insulin. Got it? Fat storage. Got it? Let's face it, people drink diet soda because they want to lose weight. They know that drinking ordinary soda is bad and all that sugar. And they're thinking calories. I don't think calories. I think insulin. You want to count? Count carbs. Oh, doc, there's zero carbs in diet soda. Yeah, I know. But you still need insulin. You'll develop insulin resistance. It will hold onto your fat. We didn't know this. And it disrupts your microbiome. That's not good. Drink water. Drink coffee. Got the memo? Okay, love you guys. Talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!