Read: Are We Sugar Crazy?]

We needn't go too deep into these weeds, and there's no particular need to get very specific about the prosecution and defense of aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, acesulfame-k or any other sweetener. We can get most of what we need with a view from altitude.

Artificial sweeteners are massively prevalent in our food supply. If we think in terms of servings consumed, it must number in some huge multiple of billions, perhaps trillions. Certainly, hundreds of millions of people have been exposed, in some cases for decades. During all that time, we have had diligent epidemiologic surveillance conducted by the likes of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, the latter being a cancer surveillance program of the National Cancer Institute.

If artificial sweeteners were causing any meaningful, overt harm - the simple fact is, we would have seen it. Imagine trying to do serious harm to hundreds of millions of people and NOT having it become obvious! In fact, over the decades that these chemicals have disseminated throughout our food supply, cancer rates have declined substantially.

xīn 《mù lán shī 》
xī xī fù xī xī ，liàng nǚ zhèng shàng jī ； 　　

bù wén bō hào shēng ，wéi wén nǚ tàn xī 。 　　

wèn nǚ hé suǒ sī ，wèn nǚ hé suǒ yì ； 　　

nǚ yì wú suǒ sī ，nǚ yì wú suǒ yì 。 　　

zuó yè wǎng shàng xíng ，suǒ yù shí xīn jīng ； 　　

mèi ér shí èr fēng ，jiē yāo wǎng xià féng 。 　　

liàng nǚ běn yǐ jià ，yǐ suí tā rén xìng ； 　　

shàng wǎng wéi zì yú ，jiān kě jié xīn péng 。 　　

dōng bǎn fù xián qíng ，xī