The reason in my case is good ol' type 2 diabetes, but I have noticed gut bacteria issues, so I try to mix in some Kefir pro-biotic yogurt drink every other week or so.Of note, there's been a lot of recent press showing that artificial sweeteners are detrimental to weight loss because they kill beneficial gut bacteria. Before that, there were studies that showed artificial sweeteners are perceived by the body as sugars (not just the tongue), and therefore trigger the same calorie storage (i.e. fat building) reaction as real sugars. Of course, if the reason was not weight loss, ignore me.