 Other than overcompensation for expected caloric reduction, there are two other ways that even the most non-toxic, non-caloric sweetener could still be harmful if we're not careful. When our brain registers the sensation of sweetness in our tongue, it has millions of years of evolution telling it we just put a piece of fruit in our mouth. And so your brain yells, eat it, and boosts our appetite, because the only naturally sweet things on the planet are super healthy, right? Fruit, sweet potatoes, beets, right? You drink a can of diet soda and your brain thinks you just stumbled across a wild blueberry bush or something, and sends urgent signals to consume, consume, before someone else gets wind of our bounty, right? Now, your body's not stupid. It knows if you eat too many calories of any food. You might get fat and not be able to outrun some saber-toothed tiger. So there are signals that come up from our gut when we absorb calories into our system, telling us eventually to, okay, slow down, we've had enough. But with non-caloric sweeteners, we have a disconnect. We just have the appetite-boosting effects on our brain of the sweet nerve sensations from our tongue, but without the appetite-suppressing effects of the calories coming into our system. And so this revved-up appetite may lead us to overeat more than we would have without the diet soda and end up gaining weight.