Research
Energy balance
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of nonnutritive sweeteners show no consistent effect on BMI, weight, or waist circumference over short-to-medium term follow-up (median 6 months).
Don't expect nonnutritive sweeteners to cause weight loss. Short-term controlled trials show no significant effect on BMI or weight. They can be part of a calorie-reduced diet, but they don't drive weight loss themselves.
GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
In the included RCTs, nonnutritive sweeteners had no significant effect on BMI (mean difference –0.37 kg/m2; 95% confidence interval [CI] –1.10 to 0.36; I2 9%; 242 participants).
Why this rating
RCTs are high-quality for causality, but the number of studies is small (7 trials) and follow-up is short.
Source
Nonnutritive sweeteners and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies
Meghan B. Azad et al. · Canadian Medical Association Journal · 2017
DOI 10.1503/cmaj.161390
Meta-analysis · 37 studiesCited 381×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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