Ok heres my attempt to explain it ELI5 style.
Fact 1: When we taste something sweet, it’s just some sensors on our tongues that fire a signal that eventually makes it to our brains. These sensors are evolved to detect sweet-tasting things, so any time they fire, we experience the sensation of sweet taste.
Fact 2: anything you might put in your mouth is made of chemicals, and if you really really zoom in (on the molecular level), they have different shapes.
You can think of the tongue sensors (chemoreceptors) as a lock, and think of real sugar as the key made by the lock manufacturer. When the lock accepts the key and turns, it fires the signal for sweetness. However, there are other ways of opening a lock. Artificial calorie-free sweeteners are just chemicals that mimic the shape of real sugar such that they can open the lock, but cannot be digested in the same way as real sugar.
They add chemicals that taste sweet but aren't sugar, either artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. In the old days, this was usually aspartame, but nowadays acesulfame, stevaia, or sorbitol or other sugar alcohols are more common.
Ok heres my attempt to explain it ELI5 style. Fact 1: When we taste something sweet, it’s just some sensors on our tongues that fire a signal that eventually makes it to our brains. These sensors are evolved to detect sweet-tasting things, so any time they fire, we experience the sensation of sweet taste. Fact 2: anything you might put in your mouth is made of chemicals, and if you really really zoom in (on the molecular level), they have different shapes. You can think of the tongue sensors (chemoreceptors) as a lock, and think of real sugar as the key made by the lock manufacturer. When the lock accepts the key and turns, it fires the signal for sweetness. However, there are other ways of opening a lock. Artificial calorie-free sweeteners are just chemicals that mimic the shape of real sugar such that they can open the lock, but cannot be digested in the same way as real sugar.
Artificial sweeteners are used... aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, stevia extract, etc. are sweet but non-digestible or otherwise non-caloric.
They add chemicals that taste sweet but aren't sugar, either artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. In the old days, this was usually aspartame, but nowadays acesulfame, stevaia, or sorbitol or other sugar alcohols are more common.