Nikki Hart: nutritionist on Donald Trump claiming Diet Coke and Fanta kill cancer cells

United States President Donald Trump has claimed that diet soft drinks could potentially eliminate cancer cells.

This was revealed in a podcast interview with Dr Oz, who heads Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Nutritionist Nikki Hart has disputed this claim - and says it's 'alarming' that the US President is saying this. 

"We know that non-nutritive sweeteners in diet drinks - there's no cause or link to cancer, but then you can't just flip it and go, oh well, I can drink lots of this because it kills cancer."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, we have had absolutely a week of weird stories
about Donald Trump, haven't we? But this one might take
the cake. Trump's head of Medicare in the States, as
old mate doctor Rolls. Doctor Rolls has gone on a
podcast and revealed that the president believes that diet soft
drinks can cure cancer.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good Dad argues that diet soda is good for him
because it kills grass, so therefore must kill cancer cells
inside the body. And I walk in there because he
wants to talk about something, and he's got fanto the desk,
and I say, are you kidding me? So he starts
to take sheeperesty grand. He goes, you know this sounds
good for me. He kills cancer cells and then he
tells me it's fresh squeezed, so how bad could it
be for you?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
The person he's talking to, by the way, is Donald
Trump Junior, who turns out has a podcast anyway. This,
of course, follows the press conference yesterday where Trump had
McDonald's delivered to the house to the White House. Nutritionous
nicky heart is with us. Now, Hi, Nikki, Hi, he
I mean, I can't even believe we have to say this.
It is obviously bollocks isn't it the diet soda kills

(00:55):
your cancer cells?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Ah, Honestly, I was alarmed considering that, you know, President
Trump is not a cancer specialist. To come out and
say something like that is alarming. I mean, look, we
know that non nutritive sweetness in diet drinks and there's
no causal link to cancer. But then you can't just
flip it and go, oh, I can drink lots of
this because it kills cancer. That's basically what is alluding to.

(01:19):
I would have thought of it.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
It kills If it kills grass, you might want to
rethink putting it in your body.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well. And I think what people don't realize too here,
that is that seventy to eighty percent of your immune
cells are in your gut, right, They're made in your gut.
So if you're putting ultra processed food and non nutritive
sweetness into your gut, that increases inflammation. It means your
immune system is going to be compromised. You're not going

(01:44):
to get away from this. And I just think it
doesn't kill cancer, and I just think it's absolute craziness.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Now, apparently hey drinks about twelve of these things a day,
does that alarm you.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, you must spend it quite a bit of time
on the toilet quietly with the amount of you know,
caffeine going into a system as well as these non
nututive sweetness. So he's probably using it as a source
of fluid. But it's not going to be as good
for you as water, is it? So? And so you know,
is that good for the microbiome of the gut? And

(02:19):
I think the answer is no.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I just would have expected that he would be constantly
sick if you were drinking that much.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, I think what I well, what we know in
nutrition and dietetics is when you damage your intestine, that's
when things go wrong. Now, when you're eating a lot
of highly ultra processed food and you're swigging back non
nutritive sweetness in large quantities, I'm not talking like a
mini but I'm large quantities. You're displacing other good food

(02:48):
for the gut that it needs to actually replenish the
good bactery that will keep you healthy. So it'll catch them,
it'll catch up with them. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Really, I mean, isn't he anzetes already now? I mean
he must be driving the likes of doctor oz and
RFK nuts because these guys are on like they they
have taken the health kick to a different extreme. Do
you like what they're up to, especially RFK.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, you know, I think we have to be very
mindful that there's polarization and nutrition right now. You've got
a lot of eat lance at plant based foods, and
then you've got the new US guidelines which are really
protein heavy, and I think what we need to do
is come to somewhere in the middle where we can
actually have a balanced diet instead of swinging from one
thing to the other. You know, just because something's got

(03:36):
high protein doesn't mean that it's a health halo compared
to say, whole grains and fiber, because we need those
for the gut as well. So I just think, you know,
we a bit of balance here. Yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
You know what I was I heard somebody in an
interview the other day yang yee, you going to eat
your lean meat, And it made me really irrationally cross
because I thought that we'd all decided that you've got
to eat the meat with a bit of fat on it.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, And you know, and I think we have to
be very very mindful to that we're an agricultural country.
We produce a lot of exported protein to the world,
and you know, we won't survive unless we do that, Heather,
That's just how it is. But on the flip side
of it, we need a high fiber diet as well,
so that's your legumes and your grains and fruits and vegetables.

(04:17):
So you know, eating lean meat is important, but it
needs to be balanced and we don't need half as
much as what we think we do.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh that's disappointing to me. Hey, Nikki, thank you very much,
appreciate it. As always, you look after yourself. Nikki. Heart Nutritionous.
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