A study published in Food Quality and Safety has uncovered that hunger intensifies the appeal of sweet taste itself, not specifically the calories it provides. Researchers from Jiangnan University and the University of Oxford found that participants rated sweet solutions as more enjoyable when hungry, regardless of whether they contained sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). This hunger-driven boost was accompanied by physiological signs of arousal, including increased heart rate.
The study, published on May 20, 2026, at https://doi.org/10.1093/fqsafe/fyag046, directly compared habitual sugar consumers and habitual NNS consumers. Under both hungry and satiated conditions, participants tasted sweetness-matched solutions while researchers measured subjective ratings, emotional responses, electrocardiogram (ECG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The team aimed to understand how metabolic state and long-term sweetener use influence sweet preference.
Contrary to the hypothesis that hunger would selectively favor caloric sugar, the results showed that hunger amplified the liking of all sweet solutions equally. "Hunger seems to turn up the volume on sweetness itself, making it more appealing whether it comes with calories or not," the authors said. This finding suggests that the craving for energy makes sweetness more attractive, independent of energy content.
More notably, habitual NNS consumers exhibited a distinct neural signature. fNIRS revealed significantly stronger oxygenated hemoglobin responses in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region linked to cognitive control and dietary self-regulation. This difference emerged even though participants tasted samples blindly and sweetness intensity was matched. The heightened brain activity in NNS consumers may reflect a learned cognitive strategy to manage the hedonic appeal of sweet foods. The study's emotion analysis, however, involved a small sample of 15 participants per group, so those findings require cautious interpretation.
The research has implications for public health and the food industry. Because hunger enhances the appeal of any sweet taste, replacing sugar with NNS in snacks consumed between meals might still satisfy cravings without adding calories. The heightened DLPFC activity in habitual NNS users raises the possibility that these sweeteners could help reinforce cognitive control over food choices, though this remains to be tested. The authors suggest that reformulating products to be less sweet overall, while ensuring they remain pleasurable, may be a more effective long-term strategy than simply swapping sugar for zero-calorie alternatives.
The study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2025YFF1107600) and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Food Safety and Quality Control in Jiangsu Province, China. Food Quality and Safety is an open access journal with a 2025 Impact Factor of 4.9.
