science

The tricky part with artificial sweeteners is that they only really help when you control for other caloric intake — which people generally don't in everyday life.

Replacing a 200-calorie sugary drink with a zero-calorie artificial-sweetener-filled drink has unintended consequences in practice. It affects your hunger response which can cause you to eat back those calories and then some. There have been studies showing this both in rats and in humans.

Artificial sweeteners are also far from healthy in isolation.

As with many things related to health and diet, you need to be careful and realistic when considering what the real alternative is, especially when factoring in human psychology.

Personally, I had great success when I tracked all my food and drink intake, and once I had a strict calorie "budget" I found it very easy to cut out shitty food — because at that point the cost of empty calories was smaller, less satisfying meals, which was tangible and relatively immediate. In that context, artificial sweeteners worked for me because I had the tools to control those unintended consequences.

In any case: seltzer with a teensy bit of lemon juice beats everything. :) I'm very happy with my purchase of a home carbonator.