Roberts happened to read prior to his trip a report about the novel taste of saccharin in experiments with rats.
Rats that got saccharin weighed more than rats that did not.
The similarities suggested that an association between saccharin and the liquid diet was behind the saccharin-induced weight gain.
That the two groups (with and without saccharin) weighed the same after one week suggested that learning was involved.
The saccharin would provide the flavor; the liquid diet, the calories.
For example, since the banning of cyclamate, saccharin is the only permitted non-nutritive sweetener available and the benefits from its use are substantial, particularly to the overweight or diabetic.
He told me that the price of a thousand saccharin tablets had been increased from 16p to 24p.
It was that the shop concerned had two suppliers of saccharin tablets.
