Labels and expectations may shape taste more than people realize, according to a new study that found expecting sugar made artificially sweetened drinks seem more enjoyable.
Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England found that when participants thought there was real sugar in a glass of lemonade, they rated an artificially sweetened drink as more pleasant.
Brain scans also showed stronger activity in the section of the brain tied to reward when people thought they were getting sugar, even when they were actually given a sweetener, the research, published in March in the Journal of Neuroscience, found.
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The study began with 99 healthy adults and was narrowed to 27 participants who could not reliably distinguish between sugar and artificial sweeteners, who then underwent brain scans.
The design was intended to reduce obvious taste differences and allow researchers to focus more closely on the role of expectation, according to the study.
During the experiments, participants were given sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened lemonades under different cueing conditions. In one part of the study, researchers changed how likely participants thought they were to receive sugar or sweetener. In another, participants were sometimes told to expect sugar but were actually given sweetener or vice versa.
The researchers found that people’s accuracy in selecting sugar from sweetener depended heavily on what they expected, and pleasantness ratings also shifted with expectation.
The researchers found that people’s accuracy in distinguishing sugar from sweetener depended heavily on expectations, and pleasantness ratings also shifted accordingly.
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Participants rated artificial sweeteners as more pleasant when they thought they were getting sugar, while sugar was rated less pleasant when people believed it was artificial, according to the study.
The authors said the findings suggest taste is shaped not only by the drink itself — but also by what the brain predicts it is about to receive.
“The expectation of sugar appears to increase the subjective value of noncaloric sweetener,” the authors wrote.
The findings may have implications for how consumers experience “diet” or “low-calorie” products and how those foods are labeled or framed.
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“If we emphasize that healthier food alternatives are ‘nutrient-rich’ or have ‘minimal added sugars,’ this may create more positive expectations than using terms like ‘diet’ or ‘low calories,'” co-author Margaret Westwater said in a statement.
“This may help people align their food choices with the brain’s preference for calories while supporting behavior change.”
It’s all about perception, Jessica Cording, a New York-based registered dietitian and author of “The Little Book of Game Changers,” told Food & Wine about the study.
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“If you’re expecting that something with artificial sweetener is a ‘diet’ food, that will cause the enjoyment factor to drop, even if the taste is the same,” Cording said.
“Reframing your thinking about a food can shape your experience of eating it,” she added.
The study, however, had limitations in that it was small and participants were specifically chosen because they could not reliably distinguish between sugar and sweetener. The authors said larger studies are needed to determine how broadly the findings apply.
The International Sweeteners Association (ISA) also emphasized the study’s limitations, including its healthy and relatively young sample size.
“This environment differs significantly from real-life eating situations,” Laurent Oger, director general at the International Sweeteners Association, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Oger added, however, that the study offers interesting insights into how expectations shape the pleasantness of what we drink and suggests that “what we think we are tasting can matter as much as what we actually taste.”
The findings align with prior research, including animal studies, on how expectation and reward influence responses to sweet foods and could shape how researchers study diet and eating behavior, according to Westwater.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for comment.
