This has been my unscientific intuition since the days of Tab.
"Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota" link to nature.com
Update: Here’s more from SciAm.
UPDATE 2016-07-16
This fascinating study compared mice with their ability to taste sweetness genetically knocked out to normal ones when over fed. They both gained weight, but the ones who tasted the sweet food gained more fat. The ones that couldn’t taste the sweetness (but consumed the calories) had reduced fat mass and increased lean mass relative to WT (wild type, i.e. normal unmodified) mice.
The abstract concludes…
The chemosensory receptor, T1R2, plays an important role in glucose homeostasis during diet-induced obesity through the regulation of yet to be identified molecular mechanisms that alter energy disposal and utilization in peripheral tissues.
If that T1R2 receptor is necessary to taste sweetness, then it seems that if you taste anything sweet, your body will start preparing you to get fat. Eating too much sweet stuff in any form seems problematic, but trying to fool your body about it does not seem helpful.
UPDATE 2017-12-19 New study finds links to dementia also.