[ErikVandeWater]

Artificial sweeteners haven't had the effect of making people thinner in the real world because it affects your sense of taste and the microbiome in your digestive system.

> Dr. Robert Lustig, an obesity expert and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, said that artificial sweeteners confuse the body: Their sweet flavors send a signal to the brain and the digestive system to brace for a flood of sugar. But when those calories never arrive, it can send hormones like insulin out of whack, over time leading to metabolic dysfunction, he said. > “The short answer is that artificial sweeteners are probably better than sugar, but not by much,” Dr. Lustig said.

NYT: https://archive.ph/MoRg7#selection-887.0-891.114

The difference between smoking and vaping is far more vast than the difference between sugar and artificial sugar