To arrive at their conclusion, the authors followed 66,118 French women for 14 years and compared consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to artificially sweetened beverages (ASB), using 100% fruit juice consumption as the control.  Of note, those who drank fruit juice reported no increase risk of diabetes while those who drank more than 359mL/wk of SSB or 603mL/wk of ASB statistically significantly greater risk of developing diabetes.  Think about it: barely one 12 ounce can of SSB each week (and less than 2 cans of ASB) is enough to increase your risk of diabetes.