PediatricDigest: Latest from Food Politics: Industry-funded study of the week: The Sweet Tooth Trial

By Marion Nestle

March 30 2026

Industry-funded study of the week: The Sweet Tooth Trial

A reader, Betsy Keller, sent me this one. Her question: Who funded this? Take a guess!

The study: The Sweet Tooth Trial: A Parallel Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Effects of A 6-Month Low, Regular, or High Dietary Sweet Taste Exposure on Sweet Taste Liking, and Various Outcomes Related to Food Intake and Weight Status. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2026; 123 (1): 101073 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.09.041

Background: Public health organizations currently recommend lowering the consumption of sweet-tasting foods, on the assumption that a lower exposure to sweet-tasting foods lowers preferences for sweet taste, decreasing sugar and energy intake, and aiding obesity prevention.

Objectives: to assess the effects of a 6-mo low, regular, and high dietary sweet taste exposure on liking for sweet taste.

Methods: Adults were given sweet foods and beverages from sugars, low-calorie sweeteners, fruits and dairy ranging from 10 to 45% of calories. They reported their sweet taste liking, sweet taste intensity perception, food choice, and investigators assessed their energy intake, body weight, markers for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and adverse events.

Results: Taste perceptions did not change over the range of sweetness studied.

Conclusions: These results do not support public health advice to reduce exposure to sweet-tasting foods, independent of other relevant factors such as energy density and food form.

Funding: The sweet tooth project, initiated by Wageningen University (Netherlands) and Bournemouth University (United Kingdom), also received private contributions from: American Beverage Association, Apura Ingredients, Arla Foods amba, Cargill R&D Centre Europe BVBA, Cosun Nutrition Center, DSM-Firmenich, International Sweeteners Association, SinoSweet Co., Ltd., and Unilever Foods Innovation Centre Wageningen. The private partners were part of an advisory committee that gave nonbinding advice to the project team that designed and executed the study. The project team reported the study design, progress, results, and manuscripts for publication to an independent steering committee, which gave binding advice before, during, and at completion of the study trial.

Conflict of interest: MM has previously received research funding from Royal Cosun (sugar beet refinery) and Sensus (inulin producer) and has received expenses from ILSI Europe. MB has received research funding from Horizon 2020 SWEET (grant agreement ID 774293). KMA has previously received research funding from the International Sweeteners Association, BE, and has current funding from The Coca Cola Company, US, and Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition North America Inc. US; KMA has received speaker’s expenses from EatWell Global and PepsiCo. KdG is a member of the Global Nutrition Advisory Board of Mars company. KdG has received travel, hotel, and speaker renumeration from the International Sweeteners Association, and received speaker expenses from ILSI North America.

Comment: Humans are born with a preference for sweet taste (the sugars in breast milk encourage babies to suck) and this study aimed to find out whether increasing consumption of sweet foods made people want to eat sweeter foods. It didn’t. On this basis, the authors conclude that recommending reduced sugar intake won’t help. Really? Sugars have calories but no nutrients, and eating a lot of sugars at any one time is difficult for metabolism to handle appropriately. Those seem like good reasons for minimizing intake of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages. The funders of this study have reasons to prefer that you not worry about this issue, which is why they funded it.

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