just to throw a bomb in here
IMO, as someone who as studied sports nutrition, a vegan diet probably has a bigger negative effect on the body than Aspartame
just saying
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Oh, man. 
Can we not poke bears that have nothing to do with the topic at hand?
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Labels. Read them.
Buyer beware.
Eat what you want.
Ride what you dig.
Thank you for so passionately defending your positions.
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But it is at hand, it is mentioned lots of times, including the first post where the poster states “maybe its my veganism”
It has been an interesting read
Simply because there were so many questions as to why and how I thought what I did, I feel as though this video does a decent job at running down some of the science. At the very least I think its important to note that aspartame breaks down to methanol and then formaldahyde in the system (I believe this is also why you can go blind / die drinking high methanol content alcohols).
Watch for yourself, I don’t want to debate it, I know how I think about this food additive. Please decide for yourself. It would seem as though if you drink alcohol regularly you have some aspartame protections built in. Unfortunately I do not.
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This thread is a little ugly for my liking, but I appreciate OP bringing it to my attention. I’ll have to start taking a closer look at the few supplements I use (SIS being one of them).
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Gluten, leaky gut, aspartame, accusations of possible involvement of food industry shills. It’s pseudoscience bingo in here 
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It would be interesting to know who the “Aspartame Expert Work Group” is, who the article was written for.
All the best,
Steve
I’m not accusing anyone of anything underhanded. I see how there are follow on metabolites in the process of formaldehyde processing in vitro. Thanks for the info @redlude97
I will say the author you cite can also be found here:
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/migrated-unbottled-posts/2013/a-nutritional-toxicologist-asks-and-answers-questions-on-aspartame
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Why does the author being on Coke’s website matter?
Apropos of nothing and it may be apocryphal as a quick google can’t locate the particular reference. The fish stocks have been declining globally for most of the 20th century but particularly in the great lakes. One notable feature, that was mentioned a few years back, of that particular region was the monotonic shift in the sex ratio of major species as males declined.
Now I am no biologist and there were all sorts of theories put out there. As a semi literate reader of this stuff the one that made the most sense to me was a population survival mechanism. As a population is put under stress the sex ratio favors females for sort of obvious reasons. Anyhow one thesis also postulated was that artificial sweetners in human urine had acted as an estrogen simulants… ( I should mention that this was only cited as secondary possible factor as the primary source was birth control pills)
Causation and correlation not the same thing. I can’t find how that theory stands ATM. But the larger, more important point is that these chemicals were present in measurable amounts in the Great Lakes and accumulating. Same deal as microplastics… Is this wise?
Thank goodness I’m not a vegan 
I really can’t be bothered looking up studies but Skeptics Guide podcast have covered this before including a writeup on science based medicine and it’s the typical chemical phobia that everyone has these days. I know I’m just another poster posting another link that no one will read, but here’s the SBM article Aspartame – Truth vs Fiction | Science-Based Medicine
This whole thread has a real foodbabe feel to it
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In other nutritional advice, everyone needs to have some SoggyBananas.
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Unfortunately, a large percentage of the population are scientifically illiterate. Just look at how much momentum the anti vax movement has gained.
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When it comes to food safety there is an additional element. Various legislations have differing thresholds for safety. For example US standards tend to be less onerous than EU standards. Which gives many cause to pick and choose fights based on the differences. It is also a bit unfortunate that food and drug safety do not have spotless reputations: any failure is sufficient to open some very dark doors. In fairness with histories such as tobacco out there skepticism is rife.
p.s Before anyone goes off on me over EU v US standards. I think that the differences are primarily down to the nature of their evolution: The US norms were developed by a single entity while the EU were developed from 27(actually less at the time) separate systems. So they are probably encompassingly conservative. So food standards are a political third rail: There is only pain in touching them.
I recently bought some SIS online and had the same reaction when I read the label - wtf!. I literally bought this because I wanted SUGAR. Why put an artificial sweetener in there? I also don’t like overly sweetened drinks. Whether safe or not I would just prefer some more/another type of actual, real, sugar.
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What are these other types of “actual real sugar”
Glucose and sucrose, both of which are sweet and neither of which are used in SiS gels or drinks. The third major “actual, real” sugar is fructose, which SiS products do have.
I don’t have a problem eating aspartame. It is a little offensive, as product design, that a carbohydrate-heavy sports drink is using artificial sweetener, considering that the main thing the drink is delivering – sugar – is already sweet. It’s a little funny for SiS in particular, since the sweetener is there to “improve palatability” (as their website says and commenters here have repeated), but the SiS drink is not, to me at least, a real winner in the palatability department and is really quite aggressively sweet. I suppose if you like flat Coke or Gatorade mixed with too little water, it would appeal to you. I can’t help but wonder if they would be better off cutting back on the amount of sweetener.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still buy it, because it’s inexpensive and super easy on the stomach.