[jcampbell1]

What if the deep subconscious keeps track of sweetness in the mouth and nutritional requirements (conscience hunger and cravings)? Artificial sweeteners would break the biological programming and cause all sorts of problems including depression and inappropriate hunger.

Edit: I hadn’t fully thought this through, but in my experience sometimes looking at a clock causes the physical hunger sensation. I have also been painfully starving which immediately stopped after the first swallow of a chugging a coke. Artificial sweeteners would have thrown a monkey wrench in my biological machinery.