3. We Love Sugar Even If We Can’t Taste It

Mother Nature is too smart to be fooled by artificial sweeteners. She knows how to detect real sugar. In fact, she gave us not one, but two systems to make sure of it. System one is our tastebuds: The ability to detect sweet tastes is programmed right into our mouths.

Most people, however, don’t know about the second system. Beyond our conscious awareness, we possess a biochemically mediated pathway connecting our digestive system to the reward circuits in our brain. This reward pathway is more strongly stimulated by sugar than by non-caloric artificial sweeteners.