So other than destroying your teeth, it sounds like the conclusion here is more or less that being overweight is unhealthy and overweight people tend to drink sugary drinks. It's just empty calories. If you're naturally lean despite drinking sugar-sweetened drinks then the negative health effects of it are probably significantly lower.

Personally, I just tend to consume mostly artificially sweetened drinks. It takes the edge off when I desire something sweet and to get any significant negative health effects from aspartamine you'd need to be consuming insane amounts of it.

[–] homoludens@feddit.org 21 points 3 days ago

Drinking too many of these drinks too often can lead to weight gain and insulin resistance

This sounds like insulin resistance could happen additionally to weight gain.

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29159583/

Artificial sweeteners appear to change the host microbiome, lead to decreased satiety, and alter glucose homeostasis, and are associated with increased caloric consumption and weight gain.