Soda Sorrows II

Diet soda, our savior from naturally sweetened soda! Or so we thought.

"Diet" was once clearly a word denoting what a person consumes in regards to food or activities.  Now this word has clearly changed largely to the consumer's need to lose weight.  Classically, it was understood that in order to lose weight someone would have to "go on a diet".  This would consist of decreasing high calorie foods or restricting the intake of food deemed "bad".  Most dieters still crave the sweetness they once had so after much debate the government released products to appease the consumer.

These products now are in almost everything.  You've heard of them Aspartame (nutrisweet) and Sucralose (splenda).  Indeed these low calorie sweeteners have little or no effect on blood sugar levels or insulin but little research has been done to assess long term effects of these on other systems. 

From purely a functional perspective if you look at what is contained one of these alternative sugars you might have more than raised brows.  Aspartame and sucralose are engineered in a lab artificially.  Bombarded with heat, chemicals, and unnatural environments these substances are clearly not for natural human consumption.  No one would electively eat chlorine or methanol.  These substances are both poison to the body but are at the heart of these molecules.  Upon consumption, your body will cleave the important parts and leave the others to reek havoc on your tissues.