I'm curious about if zero-sugar sweeteners have the same effect. From a cursory (AI-aided) query, it seems that there is much less long-term addiction compared to real sugar because the long-term effects are more coupled to the fact that real sugar decomposes to glucose and it's the glucose that causes those neuroadaptations. Artificial sweeteners have other side effects of course, but it seems like sugar has the worst long-term impact.
I think it’s gut biome problems. So you just trade one problem for another, while tasting bad? Pass.