Susan Dopart, M.S., R.D., is a nutritionist and author who observes that our culture we are "sweet obsessed".
She looks back to the 1980's, when the fat-free philosophy reigned supreme. As fat in foods dwindled, sugar and artificial sweeteners came into ascendancy.
She looks at today, and the obesity crisis that seems to have come neck and neck with low fat and sweeteners.
"Sharon Fowler, MPH, and her colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, collected data for eight years that was reported at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting in San Diego in 2005. What they discovered was that people who drank diet soda did not lose weight, but rather gained weight."
High fructose corn syrup arrived in the 1970's, made with cornstarch from genetically modified corn. Since that time, obesity and diabetes rates have soared. This fructose can cause high triglyceride levels, fatty liver, insulin resistance, and seemingly unstoppable hunger since fructose also turns off your brain's ability to respond to leptin. Leptin is the hormone that lets you know when you're full.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-b-dopart-ms-rd/artificial-sweetener_b_613684.html#s114056