its agreed that artifical colours and additives are not good for adults or children, so much so that they have been removed from kid aimed products. i think the same could be said of aspartame for everyone.
There have been loads of pro and con studies. For every one that mentions lymphomas, leukemia ,brain tumors, etc, or memory lapses there are ones that conclude that its safe.
If you are going to pick one side, its worth trying to work out who paid for this study and who benifits. As one poster said, its in everything, so its cheap, and must be of a good benifit for the food producer to add it to our food. Often thats a money reason, perhaps to keep the food on the shelf for longer or with the right advertising can give a 'health' benifit. That still doenst mean its something we should comsume in large amounts.
someone said that no long term studies, well a few have from middle age onwards but to be long term would mean its introduction from the 70's onward would still not be completed yet.
it might be worth considering /questioning who gave the approval for aspartamene to be added to our food?, and which studies did they look at ? the independant studies or the ones paid by food companies who have a vested interest in aspartame?
an artifical food introduced in to the human food chain is worthy of greater investigation than any other natural foods stuff, so how did it get in to our food when there are so many conflicting studies?