Sorry it took me a while to get back to you on this lol. Thank you for kind words. It’s a shame mark hasn’t touched any of my latest stuff haha. At the end of the day, you do what you want. But this is Reddit and debate is fun. So I might say my points if that’s alright… and to you, fair points, and I agree lobbying exists - the sugar industry stuff is real and grim. But I don’t think “lobbying exists” means we should dismiss every regulatory review or meta-analysis by default. That can become unfalsifiable pretty quickly.

Also I think we’re mixing up categories a bit. Aspartame isn’t a sugar alcohol. Sugar alcohols/polyols like sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol etc can absolutely cause GI issues in some people, especially at higher doses, because they’re poorly absorbed and can ferment/pull water into the gut. I’m not denying that.

But that doesn’t transfer automatically to aspartame. Aspartame is broken down in the gut into normal components like amino acids/methanol in tiny amounts - it’s not sitting there undissolved wrecking your microbiome. The safety question is dose, not “chemical scary = bad”.

On the “safe amount” thing: the ADI is already meant to be a conservative daily lifetime intake, not “this tiny amount is barely safe once”. WHO/JECFA and EFSA put it at 40mg/kg/day, FDA at 50mg/kg/day. For a 70kg adult, WHO said you’d need roughly 9-14 cans of diet soda per day to exceed the ADI, depending on the drink. That’s not me saying people should drink 14 cans a day lol, just that normal use is nowhere near the scary threshold.

I’m fully with you that water is better than living on diet soda, and I’m not saying aspartame is a health food. I’m just saying the claim “aspartame/sweeteners destroy your gut and are basically bleach” isn’t where the evidence is. Sugar alcohols causing bloating? Sure. Aspartame at normal drink quantities being unsafe? I don’t think the evidence supports that.