If you’ve ever tried to tame your sweet tooth by avoiding dessert, or worried that eating too many sweet snacks would make you crave more, new research offers some surprising clarity.
A randomized controlled trial from Wageningen University found that eating more or less sweet-tasting food over six months had no effect on how much participants liked sweet flavors. It also didn’t affect how much they ate, what they weighed or key health measures like blood sugar or cholesterol.
“We also found that diets with lower or higher dietary sweetness were not associated with changes in energy consumption or body weight,” said lead investigator Kees de Graaf, PhD, emeritus professor in sensory science and eating behavior at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “Even though many people believe that sweet foods promote higher energy intake, our study showed that sweetness alone isn’t to blame for taking in too many calories.”
The study included 180 adults assigned to diets that were mostly sweet, mostly non-sweet or a mix of both. Meals were delivered every two weeks, providing about half of each participant’s daily food intake. Sweet items included jam, chocolate and sugar-sweetened drinks. Less sweet foods included cheese, hummus and salted popcorn.
Each person’s sweet taste preference was measured before, during and after the diet — and again at one and four months post-trial. The result? No change.
“This is one of the first studies to measure and adjust sweetness across the whole diet within a realistic range of what people actually consume,” said de Graaf. “This matters because some people avoid sweet-tasting foods, believing that regular exposure will increase their preference for sweetness — but our results show that’s not the case.”
Researchers now hope to repeat the study with children, whose taste preferences may still be forming.
This study was funded through the TKI Top Sector Agri & Food scheme for public–private partnerships in the Netherlands.