When overweight people taste a solid sweet made with artificial sweetener (like sucralose), their bodies sometimes release insulin right away—even though there are no calories—just like when they taste real sugar.

Even though tasting artificial sweetener makes some people’s bodies release insulin, it doesn’t make them feel hungrier or change their blood sugar right after—so the insulin spike doesn’t seem to do anything noticeable yet.

Chewing a sweet solid (like a gumdrop) makes your body release more insulin right away than just drinking the same sweet taste, no matter if it’s sugar or artificial sweetener.

Even artificial sweeteners that don’t contain sugar can make some people’s bodies release insulin just from tasting them.

Even after eating artificial sweeteners or sugar every day for two weeks, people’s bodies still react the same way to the taste—no more, no less insulin is released when they taste it.

When mice on a fatty diet drank sucralose instead of fructose, they became more sensitive to insulin and gained less weight—but they didn’t do any better than mice that just drank water.