Can You Reset Your Sweet Tooth? A New Study Challenges This Popular Belief
Eat less sugar and eventually, you'll stop craving them so much. It's advice you've likely heard before. Heck, I'm a dietitian, and this is something we talked about in school and encourage friends and family to try this.
But if you've tried this approach and found your sweet tooth just as strong as ever, you're likely part of the majority. According to new research1, this age-old advice doesn't appear to actually change your food preferences. Here's what you need to know.
About the study
The Sweet Tooth Trial (yes, that is the official name), published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, set out to test a long-standing nutrition assumption: Does changing how much sweetness you're exposed to actually shift your taste preferences and food choices over time?
It's a fair question. Public health messaging has long promoted the idea that cutting back on sweet foods can "retrain" your palate. But this hadn't been rigorously tested in a controlled setting.
So for this study, researchers conducted a 6-month randomized controlled trial with 180 healthy adults. Participants were divided into three groups:
- Low sweet-taste exposure
- Regular sweet-taste exposure
- High sweet-taste exposure diets
Throughout the study, researchers measured sweet taste liking, food choices, energy intake, body weight, and cardiometabolic markers to see if exposure level made any meaningful difference.
Eating less sweet exposure didn't change preferences
After six months, there were no significant differences in sweet taste liking across all three groups. Whether folks ate fewer sweet foods or more of them, their preferences stayed remarkably stable.
Food choices didn't shift either. People in the low-exposure group didn't naturally start gravitating toward less sweet options. And when it came to overall energy intake, body weight, and cardiometabolic markers, there were no meaningful differences between groups.
Even after months of controlled exposure, participants naturally returned to their usual sweet intake once the study ended. This suggests that taste preference may be more biologically stable than we've been led to believe.
RELATED READ: The 12 Best Fruits To Beat Sugar Cravings
What this means for your sweet tooth
If your sweet tooth hasn't budged despite your best efforts to cut sugar, don't feel discouraged. The "reset your taste buds" approach may just be oversimplified.
This doesn't meat that attempts to eat less sugar aren't meaningful. Limiting exposure to added sugars (especially through processed foods is a key step to improving overall health. And you can absolutely lean into your sweet tooth in a healthful way.
Lower sugar swaps
- Choose unsweetened yogurt and add berries or a drizzle of honey. Some flavored yogurts have upwards of 12 grams of added sugars!
- Make a vanilla latte at-home with this zero-sugar whey protein (people swear by this).
- Have a square of 70-80% dark chocolate for a sweet treat. Cocoa is bursting with antioxidants, and having a bit of chocolate daily is actually healthy.
- Try one of these sweet (but high-protein) breakfast recipes.
The takeaway
Consider this your permission to stop feeling guilty that your sweet tooth didn't "reset" after yet another sugar detox. Research suggests it may not work that way.
Instead of chasing the elusive taste bud reset, focus on what the research actually supports: protein, fiber, blood sugar balance, and overall diet quality. And remember sugar cravings are complex. They're influenced by sleep, stress, hormones, and blood sugar—not just how many sweet foods you've been eating.
