'Diet Soda Kills Cancer Cells in the Body': Trump's Bizaare Health Claim Revealed by Dr Oz

Donald Trump's fondness for diet soda has long been treated as a personal quirk. Now, a claim aired by Dr Mehmet Oz said that Trump reportedly believed the drink might 'kill cancer cells' inside the body.

Dr Oz, now serving as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, described the exchange during an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.'s 'Triggered' podcast. He recounted meetings in the Oval Office where Trump would summon a diet soda with the press of a button.

'Then comes the diet soda pops,' Oz said. 'Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass when it's poured on grass, so therefore, it must kill cancer cells inside the body.'

Viewers have passed it off as offhand humour in another context. B what makes it striking is not simply the claim's scientific emptiness, but the confidence with which it is reportedly delivered.

Trump, 79, has never hidden his preference for sugary and processed foods. Those close to him reported that the president's reaching out for a fizzy drink in high-level meetings has become part of his political folklore.

Public Health Messaging Meets Personal Habit

The comments sit uneasily alongside the broader 'Make America Healthy Again' campaign, championed by both Oz and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The initiative encourages Americans to move away from processed foods and towards healthier diets.

That effort, by Oz's own telling, has made little impression on Trump himself.

Recalling a recent flight aboard Air Force One, Oz described walking in to find the president with 'an orange soft drink on his desk,' referring to Fanta. His reaction was blunt. 'I said, "Are you kidding me."'

Trump's response, according to Oz, echoed the earlier reasoning. 'He goes, "You know, this stuff is good for me, it kills cancer cells." And then he tells me, 'It's fresh squeezed, so how bad could it be for you?''

Medical consensus on diet soda is hardly flattering. While not directly linked to cancer prevention or treatment, it has been associated in some studies with weight gain and insulin resistance, both of which are risk factors for Type 2 diabetes. The leap from lawn damage to cancer therapy is not merely unsupported.

The Enduring Mythology Around Trump's Health

Trump's approach to health has long been shaped by unconventional beliefs. Among the more persistent is his so-called 'battery' theory, the idea that the human body is born with a finite amount of energy and that exercise depletes it unnecessarily.

It is well-documented that Trump has a fondness for McDonald's. The chain has appeared repeatedly in his political life, from campaign trail meals to a widely shared moment following his 2024 election victory, when he posed with fast food aboard his private plane alongside a visibly uneasy Kennedy.

Kennedy himself has expressed disbelief at Trump's dietary resilience. 'He has the constitution of a deity. I don't know how he is alive,' he said earlier this year on 'The Katie Miller Podcast,' describing the president's eating habits as 'unhinged.'

Oz, for his part, struck a more measured note when reflecting on Trump's physical condition. He pointed back to 2016, when he conducted a televised medical assessment of the then-candidate. 'He was in perfect health,' Oz said. 'His testosterone, quite frankly, was through the roof not taking any supplements.'

That assessment, now nearly a decade old, continues to be cited as evidence of Trump's robustness.

Mounting Questions Over Trump's Health Reach A Breaking Point

By April 2026, scrutiny surrounding Donald Trump had hardened into something more consequential, with senior commentators openly questioning whether he can complete his term compos mentis, a moment that reflects how concerns have escalated rather than faded.

Only weeks earlier, in February, polling suggested a sharp shift in public sentiment, with 61 per cent of Americans viewing him as 'unstable because of age,' a figure that underscores the erosion of confidence in his mental readiness. That unease had already been fuelled in January, when Trump dismissed health concerns as 'perfect' in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, even as observers pointed to a drowsy appearance and unexplained markings on his hands, days later, his claim to have 'aced' a second Montreal Cognitive Assessment raised further questions when no score was released.

The trajectory through late 2025 had been similarly uneasy. Reports in November describing suspected cognitive decline, including disorientation and word substitution errors, followed an October CT scan declared 'perfectly normal' by medical teams but treated with scepticism by critics.

Earlier still, a July appearance in Scotland marked by tangential remarks, and a May speech at West Point criticised as erratic, had already seeded doubt. When Trump returned to office in January 2025 as the oldest sitting US president, scrutiny began immediately.

For a president who continues to command attention, even the most offhand remarks carry consequence. His diet coke theory, bizarre as it is, will not easily be dismissed by critics.