Research in rats has found that artificial sweeteners may contribute to weight gain by confusing the body’s ability to control appetite and recognise when it will soon be full.

Study author, Susan Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at the Ingestive Behaviour Research Institute at Purdue University, said, ‘We found that the rats that were getting artificially sweetened yogurt gained more weight and ate more food. The take-home message is that consumption of artificially sweetened products may interfere with an automatic process. We often will stop eating before we’ve been able to absorb all of the calories that come from a meal. One of the reasons we might stop eating is that our experience has taught in the past that, ‘After I eat this food, I’ll feel this full for this long’.

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