Diet Pepsi recently announced that it would be removing the aspartame from its formula and replacing it with sucralose. As a connoisseur of both artificial sweeteners among many others, I reject this notion. Aspartame is great. I love aspartame.
Moreso, though, Diet Pepsi capitulated to America’s long-held notion that aspartame is even worse for you than sugar. Yet the substance falls in the category of those arbitrary beliefs that many crusade behind, but who do not possess enough scientific evidence to be reasonable. It is supported by research that, say, cigarettes are a known cause of cancer. Aspartame, though, has not been proven to be harmful, despite many Americans’ perception otherwise. And despite a preponderance of conflicting information on the internet, the New York Times has just reported that artificial sweeteners are, in fact, better for you than sugar, and that the link to cancer in humans has never been proven.
Diet Pepsi capitulated to the current demand for “artisanal” soda—after sugar-only “Mexican Coke” became a marquee menu item for upscale restaurants, soda companies seemed to forget the reason they replaced sugar with artificial sweeteners in the first place, which is that too much sugar is bad for you.
Aaron E. Carroll, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and excellent troll of our country’s most extreme health-truthers, writes:
A 1998 randomized controlled trial could detect no neuropsychologic, neurophysiologic or behavioral effects caused by aspartame. Even a dose at 10 times the normal consumption had no effect on children with attention deficit disorder. A safety review from 2007, published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, found that aspartame had been studied extensively and that the evidence showed that it was safe.
It is true that people with phenylketonuria, a rare genetic disorder, need to limit their consumption of aspartame, since phenylalanine is one of its components. But for most people, aspartame isn’t a concern, even outside of cancer. It’s also true that some of the sugar alcohol sweeteners, like in Stevia, can have a laxative effect or cause bloating when eaten in large amounts by some people. In normal use by most people, though, all of the approved artificial sweeteners are safe.
Though Dr.-Professor Carroll says the approved artificial sweeteners are safe, I am here with my refined palate to supplement his argument by telling you which of them taste great. And there is no better tasting artificial sweetener than aspartame. This is indisputable.
Aspartame’s top notes: aspirin, thin strands of cotton, soft and sweet plastic, chemical rugburn, bitter foliage, the sole of a box-fresh Nike Air Jordan.
Aspartame’s heart notes: diet corn syrup, guilt-free pleasure, a tongue massage.
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