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Artificial sweeteners and appetite: what the research means

Updated 20 September 2026.

The headline that artificial sweeteners can increase appetite came in part from research on how sweetness and food energy interact. It is worth separating that scientific question from a much broader claim that every sweetener makes every person hungry.

The 2016 research behind the headline

A University of Sydney report published in July 2016 described experiments involving fruit flies and mice exposed to sucralose. Researchers investigated a pathway linking perceived sweetness with energy intake and reported increased feeding under the studied conditions.

Animal experiments can help identify mechanisms worth investigating. They do not, by themselves, establish that people using a particular sweetener in everyday quantities will experience the same effect, or that all non-sugar sweeteners behave identically.

Appetite, weight control and safety are different questions

In 2023, WHO issued a conditional recommendation against using non-sugar sweeteners for long-term weight control or prevention of noncommunicable disease. The recommendation excludes people with pre-existing diabetes. WHO also explains that possible confounding in the evidence is one reason the recommendation is conditional.

That guidance is not a toxicological assessment of individual sweeteners and does not replace authorised safe-intake limits. A headline about appetite should therefore not be interpreted as proof that an approved sweetener is poisonous, or that replacing it with large amounts of sugar is beneficial.

How to interpret a new claim

  • Check whether the study involved people or animals.
  • Identify the specific sweetener, amount and duration studied.
  • Distinguish measured appetite from food intake, body weight and long-term health outcomes.
  • Look at what the comparison group consumed.
  • Avoid turning a result about one product or setting into a rule for every diet.

If you are managing diabetes, digestive symptoms or another health condition, discuss dietary changes with an appropriately qualified clinician or Accredited Practising Dietitian. This updated explanation is general information and does not prescribe a personal eating plan.