" Artificial sweeteners (noncaloric sweeteners, as the USDA calls them) as a replacement for sugar muddy these waters even more. Much of the anxiety about these sweeteners was generated in the 1960s and 1970s by the research, partly funded by the sugar industry, as we’ve seen, that led to the banning of cyclamates as a possible carcinogen, and the suggestion that saccharin could cause cancer (at least in rats, at extraordinarily high doses). Though this particular anxiety has tapered off with time, it has been replaced by the suggestion that maybe these artificial sweeteners can cause metabolic syndrome, and thus obesity and diabetes. This conjecture comes primarily from epidemiological studies that show an association between the use of artificial sweeteners and obesity and diabetes. But whether this means artificial sweeteners cause obesity and diabetes is, again, impossible to say. "

― Gary Taubes , The Case Against Sugar