On Nutrition For decades, artificial sweeteners have been marketed as a silver bullet for weight management and guilt-free indulgence of sweet tooths. About 200 to 20,000 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar), artificial sweeteners are ubiquitous in diet sodas, baked goods and brightly colored tabletop packets. But while they have broad appeal, recent scientific research paints a complicated picture. In 2023, the World Health Organization recommended against using nonsugar sweeteners for weight control because, while they can contribute to short-term weight loss, they don’t actually work for that purpose in the long term. However, new observational data from 143,409 participants — published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition — suggests that replacing sugar-sweetened beverages with artificially sweetened beverages or water was associated with a very small amount of weight loss over time.…