2.1. Trial Design
The STOP Sugars NOW trial is a four-week single-center, open label, randomized controlled crossover trial with three arms (SSB, NSB, water) comparing the effect of replacing SSBs with NSBs (“intended replacement”) versus water (“standard of care”) on the gut microbiota diversity and glucose tolerance. After a two-week run-in phase, each participant acted as their own control receiving the three interventions for four-weeks each in a random order, with intervention phases separated by a minimum of a four-week washout phase. All trial visits were conducted at Unity Health Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON. Canada. The trial protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the Tri-Council Policy Statement 2 [