There has been a lot of medical research into this and a lot of conflicitng advice - I read Dr Karl Kruzelnitski (sp????) on this and he reckons that all the blather about artificial sweetners causing cancer is rubbish. I tend to think of it like everything else - two kilos of salt in one go will kill you - but that doesn't mean you can't take a shake of salt on your chips - two kilos of artificial sweener in one go may cause cancer in rats, but are you really going to ingest 2kg of artificial sweetner in one go?
I still drink diet softdrinks - I just keep it to 600ml a day.
Aspartame is a dipeptide containing the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid. The acceptable daily intake of aspartame is 40 mg/kg body weight/day, which is equivalent to a person weighing 60 kg drinking approximately sixteen 355 mL (10 oz.) cans of diet soft drink daily (2). Individuals needing to control phenylalanine intake (i.e., phenylketonuria), should limit their aspartame intake (1).
Evidence suggests that consumption of aspartame by pregnant women is safe and does not pose a health hazard. However pregnant women should be cautioned against excessive consumption of products containing aspartame and other artificial sweeteners since such foods could be replacing nutrient-dense, energy-yielding foods
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