and activation of sweet taste receptors in the mouth would be a strong and consistent predictor that energy and sugar would be arriving in the gut. As a result, anticipatory responses, such as the release of hormones or increases in energy expenditure, are elicited at the first taste of sweet, prior to actual absorption or metabolism of food. Based on principles of Pavlovian conditioning, one method to diminish the strength of conditioned responses is to present the conditioned stimulus without presenting its consequences. Artificial sweeteners do just this; they provide very sweet tastes but without the energy or sugar that has been associated with sweet. Following such experience, physiological responses become blunted even when real sugars are consumed because sweet tastes no longer provide reliable cues about what will happen.