I thought research showed sweet substances, whether rich in calories or not, produce an insulin effect regardless. The sweeter the substance, the greater the effect.
Here, from a 2020 study:
Quote:
Incidence of diabetes mellitus has increased over the past few years, mainly due to our eating habits and physical inactivity. This also includes the use of artificial sweetening agents which have broadly replaced other forms of sugars and have shown a paradoxical, negative effect on blood glucose. Ingestion of these artificial sweeteners (AS) results in the release of insulin from pancreas which is mistaken for glucose (due to their sweet taste). This increases the levels of insulin in blood eventually leading to decreased receptor activity due to insulin resistance.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7014832/
So yes, lower calories. The insulin effect, and associated diabetes risk, is proportional to its sweetness not calorie amount however.