Well, it is simply the opposite if nutritive. It has no nutrition in it. It does nothing to enhance your health.

Well, I am disappointed in key2's answer. It's like saying the definition of "unknown" is "the opposite of known." And saying Non-nutritive "does nothing to enhance your health," is simply wrong. Water is non-nutritive ( http://www.calorieking.com/foods/food.php?category_id=6962&brand_id=1&food_id=83270&partner= ) but it does enhance your health. And the use of a non-nutritive sweetner, as specifically mentioned in the question, instead of some other sweetner can certainly enhance some people's health. Nutritive means that something has "nutirents" which are "substances that can be metabolized by an organism to give energy and build tissue. " Specifically as far as food labeling and whether something is considered "non-nutritive", the nutrients, and they may not be 'nutrients' according to definition, but are according to law, include fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates( which include sugars and fiber), protein, and the calories derived from them, as well as any vitamins and/or minerals. Non nutritive in the labeling sense means the product has none of those. A person on a low calorie, low carb, low protein, low sodium, low sugar, or low something else diet might choose a non-nutritive sweetner, or other product or a product that uses a non nutritive additive. You could use "food" as a synonym for "nutrient." A non-nutritive sweetner just has sweetness, it has no food value, no minerals, no fiber, no nothing that your body will metabolize, no calories to burn for energy or fats to store. That does not necessarily mean it is healthier, usually non nutrients are just passed right thru the body, but they may be stored away somewhere that real nutrients should be stored, or they may interfere with chemical processes that the nutrients should be taking part in without giving any of the energy or tissue building that the nutrients would. For example the non-nutritive fat Olestra has the medical side-effects of dyspepsia, diarrhea, gas, loss of fat-soluble vitamins & nutrients. It has another non-medical, laundry related, side effect. Since it is not absorbed by the body it sometimes, when enjested in more or less larger amounts, quickly,and I do mean quickly, passes right thru the body carrying some of those fat soluble nutrients along with it, resulting in embarrassing and hard to remove oil stains in one's clothing and unmentionables. In fact i now wish I hadn't mentioned that myself.

Food with no calories, or hypo-caloric food, is what we call non-nutritive food. An example of an ingredient used for such non-nutritive value would be aspartame, with a concentration of 1/200th of sugar quantity for equivalent taste.