This article by Dr. Joseph Mercola summarizes basically everything you need to know about the artificial sweetener aspartame -- aka. "Animosweet." Like high fructose corn syrup, it's everywhere. For example, there's no longer any brand of chewing gum available in regular stores that's aspartame-free. Big Red was the last one, but not anymore.
By the way, speaking of high fructose corn syrup, Dr. Mercola also mentions:
And I'm not only talking about high fructose corn syrup, which is virtually identical to table sugar. The only major difference between the two is HFCS is much cheaper so it has contributed to massive increase in fructose ingestion, far beyond safe or healthy.
The HFCS people are spending a lot of money on liars like Rick Berman to produce these ads:
Yeah, it might be similar to sugar. And the mom in the commercial says something about "moderation." But how can anyone possibly moderate when it's in literally EVERYTHING? It's in bread -- almost all brands of bread now.
Adding... Oliver Willis raises some interesting points about Mercola's tactics and reputation. Fair enough. But the points he makes about aspartame aren't unique to him. I've read similar findings about both HFCS and aspartame by numerous other nutrition and health experts.