Artificial sweeteners, also known as sugar substitutes, are additives that are used to sweeten foods and drinks. These are synthetic alternatives, although certain natural herbs can also be used.
They're often referred to as "intense sweeteners" because they have a taste close to table sugar but are thousands of times sweeter.
While some sweeteners contain calories, the amount required to sweeten products is so small that you consume very few calories. In addition, relative to the amount of sugar you would usually use for sweetness, you only need a fraction of the artificial sweetener.