Does desert make you want to eat more?

Dessert or the perception of sweetness, such as that from non-nutritive sweeteners, can stimulate appetite and cravings in some people. For instance, Andrew Huberman mentioned that the smell or perception of food, including sweetness without calories, can stimulate appetite. He also referred to the fact that for some individuals, drinking diet soda—which often contains artificial sweeteners—seems to stimulate their appetite, possibly due to a paired association between the taste of sweetness and the anticipation of food. This could explain why diet soda makes some people think of food and crave it more, illustrating how the perception of sweetness can lead to increased hunger or food cravings 1.