Artificial sweeteners help some patients lose weight. But they don’t help everyone. For some patients, Truvia and Equal and Splenda and SweetnLow take the edge off. For other patients, artificial sweeteners make cravings worse and trigger binging. Next time you have a Diet Coke, notice if it satisfies you, or if it makes you crave more sweet things. Next time you put Equal in your coffee or tea, pat attention as to whether or not it satisfies you, or makes you want to seek out sweet stuff. I strongly prefer Equal in coffee or tea, compared to the other artificial sweeteners. Equal tastes better to me in hot and cold beverages. I prefer Spenda for cooking. I use Splenda in sugar-free cheesecake and on barbecued ribs. I don’t like SweetnLow (it doesn’t make things satisfyingly sweet enough for me, and has a bitter after taste), and I don’t like Truvia – it’s way too sweet for me in beverages and in cooking.