Cutting sugar: does it matter whether the swap still tastes sweet?

A pilot randomised controlled trial published in the British Journal of Nutrition on 25 September 2026 looked at a debated question: when people cut free sugars, does it help or hinder to keep a sweet taste? 72 adults (52 women, average age 42, average BMI 27.2) were asked to swap their usual high-sugar foods and drinks for low-sugar ones that either still tasted sweet, had a different, non-sweet taste, or had no particular taste. Each group had 24 people, and the advice came once, in an information booklet.

Over the following four weeks, free sugar intake fell by 2.6 to 3.6 percentage points of total energy intake in all three groups, with changes in other dietary, taste and attitude measures too. Participants also described what they found helpful or unhelpful about the advice.

The pilot was designed to test the methods for a larger trial, not to decide which approach works best. Still, the practical signal is encouraging: one round of clear written advice was followed by less sugar, whatever the taste approach. Whether sweet swaps help or hold people back over months is the question for the full trial.