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Here's Exactly What Happens to Your Liver When You Drink Diet Soda

By Emily Laurence Sardinha Parade - Health Stories

Updated May 24, 2026 2:35 PM

The liver is an organ that's easy to take for granted. While brain health, gut health and longevity are trending topics, knowing how to support the liver doesn't come up as often in wellness-centric conversations.

Perhaps it should. The liver is the body's largest internal organ. It regulates metabolism, helps with detoxification and is central to immunity. It converts nutrients into energy, removes toxins and is the body's primary defense system against pathogens entering the gut. It's impossible to live without a functioning liver.

You likely already know that consuming alcohol in excess damages the liver. "Alcohol can cause liver disease," confirms Dr. Neha Jakhete, MD, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist with the University of Maryland Medical System.

But it's not just alcohol that can negatively impact the liver. Metabolically-dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formally called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) is a serious threat to liver health. MASLD is when fat builds up in the liver, which can cause inflammation over time. It's one of the most common forms of liver disease.

Sugary beverages, like soda, can be a sneaky cause of weight gain, leading to fat buildup in the liver. If you drink diet soda as a way to cut back on sugar, you may be wondering how drinking it regularly impacts liver health. Here, hepatologists explain exactly how regular soda and diet soda impact the liver.

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How Drinking Regular Soda Impacts Liver Health

This likely isn't going to come as a shock, but drinking soda regularly isn't great for your liver. "Of all the dietary habits I discuss with patients, regular soda consumption is the one that's effect on the liver is most underestimated. People think of soda in terms of weight gain or cavities. The liver is rarely the organ that comes to mind. It should be," Dr. Treta Purohit, MD, a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Oshi Health, tells Parade.

"Soda has high-fructose corn syrup, which triggers fat buildup in the liver and that can lead to insulin resistance," Dr. Jakhete explains. Dr. Purohit adds to this, saying that drinks with high-fructose syrup impact the body differently than drinks with other types of sugar.

"Glucose is taken up by tissues throughout the body and regulated by insulin. Fructose isn't. It travels almost directly to the liver, which converts much of it into fat. Over time, as that fat accumulates, the liver becomes inflamed, and scar tissue can form. What starts as fatty liver can progress to a more serious disease-and research shows this can happen independently of weight gain. Soda doesn't just contribute to liver disease through extra calories. It contributes directly," Dr. Purohit says.

Dr. Purohit points to scientific research backing this up. In one meta-analysis of more than 35,000 people, researchers found that even less than one soda a week was associated with a 14% increase in the odds of fatty liver, while seven or more a week raised the odds by 53%. Another study found that people who drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a week had more than two and a half times the odds of developing fatty liver compared with non-soda drinkers.

How Drinking Diet Soda Impacts Liver Health

What about diet soda? Is it any better for the liver than regular soda? According to the hepatologists, diet soda doesn't negatively impact the liver as much as regular soda does, but that doesn't mean that it gets a free pass.

Both doctors say that the relationship between diet soda and liver health is more complicated than regular soda and liver health. They explain that, unlike regular soda, there isn't scientific evidence that drinking diet soda directly causes MASLD or other liver problems. But there are some indirect ways that it may be causing harm.

For example, Dr. Jakhete explains that scientific research shows an association between drinking diet soda regularly and weight gain. She says that this could be because artificial sweeteners increase sugar cravings. Dr. Purohit agrees, explaining, "Normally, when we taste something sweet, the body braces for incoming calories-it ramps up certain metabolic and hormonal responses, including signals that eventually tell us we've had enough. When sweetness arrives without calories, day after day, that learned link starts to break down. The body becomes less reliable at regulating intake when sweet foods do show up."

Additionally, Dr. Jakhete notes that there is some scientific evidence that artificial sweeteners change the balance of bacteria in the gut. "This imbalance can change how you metabolize what you consume and could lead to insulin resistance. It could even increase appetite," she says.

How To Support Your Liver Through What You Eat and Drink

Hearing that both regular soda and even diet soda may contribute to MASLD can be discouraging. Does this mean you can never enjoy a cold, crisp cola? First, both doctors say that there's nothing wrong with having a soda every once in a while. If it's an occasional habit and not a regular one, they say not to lose sleep over it.

If you are a frequent soda drinker, both say that diet soda is a better choice than regular soda, but an even better choice is sparkling water with no added sugar. "What sparkling water offers is the simplest position of all: no fructose, no artificial sweeteners, no open scientific questions. The carbonation itself has no known effect on the liver-bubbles interact with the mouth, esophagus and stomach, not the organ downstream," Dr. Purohit says.

If you want to support your liver through what you eat and drink, Dr. Purohit advocates for following a Mediterranean diet-style way of eating. This eating plan emphasizes vegetables, fruit, plant-based proteins, seafood and olive oil while minimizing red meat and ultra-processed foods.

"The data suggests that more than two servings of red meat a week, or roughly one serving of processed meat such as bacon, sausage and deli meats, is enough to register as a risk factor [for MASLD]. You don't have to give them up entirely. You do have to stop treating them as everyday food," Dr. Purohit says.

If you drink soda or diet soda every day, switching to sparkling water is an easy swap that will support your liver while still satisfying a craving for something cold and bubbly. Cheers to drinking to your health!

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Sources:

Physiology, Liver. StatPearls.
Dr. Neha Jakhete, MD, gastroenterologist and hepatologist with the University of Maryland Medical System.
Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Treta Purohit, MD, gastroenterologist and hepatologist at Oshi Health.
Chen, H., Wang, J., Li, Z., et al. (2019). Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Has a Dose-Dependent Effect on the Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: An Updated Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 16(12):2192.
Park, W. Y., Yiannakou, I., Peterson, J. M., et al. (2023). Sugar-Sweetened Beverage, Diet Soda, and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Over 6 Years: The Framingham Heart Study.Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 20(11):2524-2532.
Yang, Q. (2010). Gain weight by "going diet"? Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 83(2):101-108.
Hetta, H. F., Sirag, N., Elfadil, H., et al. (2025). Artificial Sweeteners: A Double-Edged Sword for Gut Microbiome.Diseases. 13(4):115.
Invancovsky-Wajcman, D., Fliss-Isakov, N., Sol Grinshpan, L., et al. (2022). High Meat Consumption Is Prospectively Associated with the Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Presumed Significant Fibrosis. Nutrients. 14(17):3533.

This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 2:25 PM.