Yeah there are experts on both sides, each with their own opinions & agendas. Seems like they study the same thing & come up with the opposite conclusion some how. For me, it's not worth it to consume aspartame or sucralose...I only had to switch to a different yogurt. As to your question about sucralose, I believe it causes the same insulin reaction as aspartame....someone please chime in if I am mistaken.
His reasoning seems to be better than most, in my own opinion. I generally like his frame of reference. He typically recommends things that have either been proven to be effective in clinical studies, or have been shown, with reasonable confidence, not to be detrimental. He is very well educated and experienced, evidently highly intelligent and obviously well spoken. When he talks, I tend to listen. Even so, I offered 3 hyperlinks on stevia in case any one of them didn't do it for you. You now have 2 others to choose from.
health and fitness has been my 'other' passion for years and this was something I read up on for awhile, because I drink tons of diet soda. The gist seems to be that yes, artificial sweeteners have shown some ill effects in rats, but... 1.) the rats were given the equivalent of hundreds of cans of soda a day, ridiculous. 2.) The labratory environment itself has been shown to have ill effects on rats, so thats a confounding variable. 3.) You cannot really extrapolate this stuff to humans because a rat has such a fast metabolism, any effect at all will be maginified in them....plus they're rats, not humans. Somebody mentioned the cephalic response to insulin, I really don't think thats an issue. If you realize all of a sudden aspartame makes you stupid hungry, get some will power.
funny headaches to wicked headaches. I also have noticed an increase in friends and acquaintances knowing people who have had brain cancer. All of them have been young heavy diet coke drinkers. (take it for what its worth)
I have not seen any SCIENTIFIC evidence that aspartame causes serious health problems. Anecdotal evidence is apparently all the fearmongers can bring to the table. That doesn't mean that I am going against what I said about cutting down on the Diet Coke.
C'mon guy's, if rats could tell "anecdotes" or describe symptoms, the product would NEVER have made it into your bloodstream. Anyone think of THAT? You have humans describing symptoms, and you still dont beleive them?
So because humans supposedly have a slower metabolim than rats it makes it okay to drown ourselves with synthetic chemicals? And btw, we are evolved from rodents believe it or not. The reason they do experiments on rats is because of their short lifespan. That way we can find out if chemicals, ect will fark us up if we use them over our lifetime, during our lifetime, before we have poisoned ourselves to death.
If insulin were released after ingesting aspartame as a reaction to increased blood sugar, aspartame would not be recommended for diabetics. Consider this from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/artificial-sweeteners/AN00348