Doing the math around artificial sweeteners

"The controversy surrounding these products natural, natural-like, or artificially made sugars will likely continue for years to come. We do know that artificial sweeteners increase our threshold for sweet taste, and yes, cause us to crave more sweets. If one “diet” soda leads to another “diet” soda, the “diet” effect is soon lost. " [source, emphasis is mine]

The 12 oz diet soda on my desk has 0 calories (meaning less than 5 calories under the FDA rounding rules).  If I drank ten of them, I might consume 50 calories, at most; in all likelihood, far less.  The diet effect is safe, I think.

I'm thinking about how we evaluate information: what does the BS detector look like for scientists versus non-scientists?

(As an aside, there is no evidence that artificial sweeteners increase the consumption of sweets.)