You can't do right for doing wrong in 2026, and it seems as soon as we're told something is 'good' for us, someone somewhere else is telling us it's shaving years off our lives.
It doesn't help when the US Department of Agriculture is sharing new guidelines that flip the traditional food pyramid on its head and put an emphasis on the likes of red meats and fats. As an example, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a proponent of cooking in beef tallow, while the American Heart Association (AHA) has highlighted that it's high in saturated fat and can be linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Even as RFK Jr. pushed his 'Make America Healthy Again' mantra, he's admitted he's surprised President Donald Trump is alive. After all, the POTUS isn't exactly the poster boy for health as he puts away an impressive amount of fast food, and RFK Jr. claims he's "pumping himself full of poison all day long." The Commander-in-Chief is known for washing down his order with enough Diet Coke to sink a battleship, reportedly having his special Diet Coke button restored to the Oval Office.
Why are fizzy drinks bad for you?
According to one heart surgeon, the president is guzzling 'liquid death' along with 50% of the American public.
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We've previously covered health concerns surrounding Diet Coke in terms of diabetes, but according to Dr Jeremy London, that's not all we should be worried about. Posting on Instagram, Dr London revealed the four things he avoids to keep his heart healthy, calling out smoking, alcohol, the consumption of refined flours and wheats, and fizzy drinks. For the latter, he reiterated: "Soft drink, liquid death. Just don't drink them. Period. Done."
Even though Dr London unsurprisingly put smoking as the worst thing you can do to your body, fizzy drinks might come as a surprise to some.
According to World Population Review, 60% of US consumers buy carbonated drinks annually, while around 50% of American adults consume soda or sugary fizzy drinks every day. Consumption rates are shockingly high, with 75% admitting they drink fizzy drinks at least once a week.
Dr London doubled down on his assault against the fizz in an interview with Today. Here, the heart expert admitted that calling soft drinks 'liquid death' might've been a bit harsh. Still, he reminded us: "I think that soft drinks are just a scourge in our society, and so I was really trying to get some attention.
"Obviously, high-calorie soft drinks and ingesting a lot of calories that people don’t realize they’re getting with the sugar-based soft drinks is a big no-no."
This was a while ago, but a scroll of Dr London's socials shows he continues to call out any form of fizzy drink. As well as an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, they've been linked to pancreatic cancer and heart disease.
What alternatives are there to fizzy drinks?
The Heart Foundation gives its own warnings against fizzy drinks, stating that 'sugar-sweetened beverages' are high in calories but offer little or no nutritional value. Even diet sodas that contain stevia or aspartame have their own long-term health concerns, while the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has deemed the latter to be "possibly carcinogenic to humans."
The Heart Foundation obviously lists water as the best alternative to fizzy drinks, but if you want something else, it suggests sparkling water with chopped fruit or herbs, unflavoured milk, plant-based milks, tea, coffee, and a small glass (125ml) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice.
Either way, it sounds like it's time to kick the can.