How tasting sweetness triggers hormonal responses even without calories.
What the evidence says
- Tasting or even seeing/thinking about food triggers anticipatory insulin release (cephalic phase response)[1]
- Sweet taste normally triggers anticipatory insulin, GLP-1, and GIP release to prepare for incoming glucose[2]
- Elevated insulin increases hunger, heightened perceived pleasantness of sweet taste, and increased food intake[1]
- *On Swithers' learning-based account, when artificial sweeteners provide sweetness without calories the body prepares for glucose that never arrives — the proposal her review is built to advance, not an established mechanism*[2]
- This may disrupt learned metabolic responses and contribute to increased hunger/cravings[1],[2]
- Sweet-taste receptors (T1R3/gustducin) are also expressed in the gut and pancreas — NNS activate these to upregulate glucose transporters (SGLT1, GLUT2), potentially enhancing glucose absorption independently of the cephalic phase[3]