Are artificial sweeteners bad for you?

"The dose makes the poison."
~Paracelsus
Are artificial sweeteners bad for you?  I recently received an email from another alternative medicine practitioner stating that “he couldn’t believe I recommended artificial sweeteners on my website!”  My response was, “So let me get this straight if one of your patients asked you if she could have a Diet Coke once a month you would say no?”

So many things in our world have become so black and white that people have forgotten about moderation as a sensible way of life.

Artificial sweeteners have been taking a beating since saccharin was lynched in 1977 supposedly being linked to cancer despite no real sensible data on humans to support it. The amount of saccharin you would have to consume to potentially have negative effects would be 4 cans of Tab every single day (Who still drinks Tab?).  Saccharin doesn’t really even exist anymore other than in Tab and a tiny amount in Sweet’N Low.

The main three artificial sweeteners in commercial use today are:

Aspartame
Sucralose
Acesulfame-potassium
Alitame
Cyclamate
Neotame

I’ll cut right to the chase, there is absolutely no evidence that long-term consumption of diet sodas consumed in a reasonable amount have any negative health effects.  What causes negative health effects related to diet sodas is simply too many calories and people who drink diet sodas tend to already eat too much food.  People who already eat a healthy diet and exercise tend not to gravitate towards diet sodas but if they want to enjoy them in moderation there are absolutely no health consequences in doing so.
What created the mass hysteria about artificial sweeteners?
A few studies on rodents showed that aspartame increased certain types of cancers but they were fed quantities of aspartame that no human could actually consume in a day. Imagine a pick-up truck with a big mountain of aspartame in the back and you would actually have to eat that mountain every day to possibly get cancer.  Then imagine a single granule of that mountain as a single diet soda consumed in moderation.

Additionally, rodents do not metabolize aspartame the same way humans do so we can’t even effectively make similar conclusions from these studies.
What about sucralose?
A safe amount of sucralose is 5mg/kg bodyweight but most people don’t even come close to this averaging about 1.6mg/kg bodyweight.  No studies have shown any detrimental effects from sucralose in these ranges.  You would have to consume 11,450 packets of sucralose every day to have any detrimental effects.
But don't artificial sweeteners spike insulin?
No, at least not to any significant level that would be detrimental to health.  There is no solid evidence to support that diet sodas spike insulin to an unhealthy level.  In fact, when aspartame was consumed with or without carbohydrates it did not spike insulin levels.  Even diabetics who consumed artificial sweeteners did not experience an insulin spike.

The only study to show it spiked insulin was done on rat pancreatic cells in a test tube when combined with sugar.
What about weight gain?
The CHOICE study actually found that eating a healthy diet and changing from regular soda to diet soda was effective for losing weight.

The PREMIER TRIAL found that if you reduce diet soda consumption you will not improve your weight loss numbers at all.

The NHANES study showed that if you increase your consumption of diet soda you will not eat more calories and gain weight.

The key points that researchers make about artificial sweeteners in regards to weight gain are that many people are eating poorly in the first place and then they change to diet soda to “do less damage” which clearly will not make much of an impact.  Those people who are eating a healthy diet in the first place and consume artificial sweeteners in moderation will have absolutely no negative effects.

If you’re eating a crappy diet in the first place then consumin...