DIETING: Artificial sweeteners may trick people into being hungrier, study says.

Researchers in the new study say, however, that while reduction of sugar consumption can be healthy — so replacing real sugar with something else should be beneficial — the effects of using chemicals in unhealthy foods rather than replacing sugar-sweetened foods with those carrying natural sugar had not previously been explored.

“These findings further reinforce the idea that ‘sugar-free’ varieties of processed food and drink may not be as inert as we anticipated,” Herbert Herzog, a professor at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said in a press release. “Artificial sweeteners can actually change how animals perceive the sweetness of their food, with a discrepancy between sweetness and energy levels prompting an increase in caloric consumption.”

I won’t eat or drink anything with them, because they taste horrible and aspartame gives me a wicked headache.