We’ve all heard of artificial sweeteners. But what are they really? Artificial sweeteners—also known as non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS), sugar substitutes, and flavor enhancers—contain few or no calories and no vitamins or minerals. They are considerably sweeter than natural sweeteners—often by orders of magnitude—so they have a much more concentrated sweetness than sugar.

You consider yourself a bit of a health freak. You roll your eyes as you watch your coworker grab another soda from the office vending machine. Please. Doesn’t he know what 55 grams of pure sugar will do to his waistline? Not so fast, oh healthy one. Put down your zero-calorie sports drink and listen up. New research suggests that diet drinks, once endorsed for promoting weight loss, may actually have the opposite effect. Read more to learn if you should ditch the artificial sweeteners.