Artificial sweeteners and diabetes

Ive read on this forum and other trusted resources that diet sodas were basically safe to consume regularly. A friend and I were discussing diet drinks recently (riveting, I know) and she referenced quite a few studies from peer reviewed journals regarding the association between hypertension, diabetes, obesity, etc and artificial sweetener consumption. It seems though upon closer inspection of the papers that most of them contained numerous confounding variables. Im no statastician, but it seems like causation would be super hard to tease out in these types of studies. Is there any merit to these types of studies? The authors confidently say at the end of one study that diabetes is ssociated with consuming artificoally sweetened beverages. Thoughts? It sounds like you could find anything to be aasociated with any condition if you wanted. For instance, i take my watch off before I go to bed. Does that mean that taking off your watch makes you go to sleep? That seems to be the same way in which diet soda consumption is associated with diabetes. In other words, to try and make sense of this word salad ive written, if you study obese people, who eat like shit and dont exercise who alao happen to consume diet beverages can you even confidently proclaim that diet soda consumption is associated with diabetes?

While there may be associations between artificial sweetener use and obesity, as well as between obesity and diabetes, there is no direct evidence that artificial sweeteners cause diabetes.

Ok. Thats what I assumed would be the answer. What about the phosphate in diet soda. Is phosphate consumption deleterious to the development or worsening of particularly diabetes?

I am not particularly concerned about phosphate intake on its own as it relates to diabetes. I am far more concerned with factors like total energy, fiber, and the composition and sources of dietary fat.

Thank you for your response.