Many artificial sweeteners are the work of the devil in my eyes........aspartame for instance, some twenty or more years ago, was marketed entirely by a powerful company who waged a VERY dirty war on Stevia producers, Stevia being the only really naturally occurring sweetener marketed commercially. it was viewed as such a commercial threat to the big M that a really dirty war was waged against the stevia producers, with a LOT of threats, death threats, intimidation etc etc. It kept Stevia from becoming a commercially widely available product until the last few years in otder to maintain the Big Company monopoly.
Aspartame is really nothing more than a by-product of the awful chemical warfare agent Napalm. Do I want to put that toxic stuff in my body? I think sugar itself if preferable. I reckon no-one "needs" sweeteners - it is just an effort to get that palatable taste back. Aspartame was linked to various autoimmune diseases too, I remember taking part in a campaign against it years ago, and was shocked to find it peddled to kiddies and in virtually everything on the supermarket shelves eventually - it is also much cheaper than sugar hence companies use it in everything and call it a "healthy" option.
Personally, I will avoid sweeteners forever - the only one I might consider is pure Stevia, but do I REALLY need it? The answer is no.
