Background Pony #F4ED

Interesting, but not what I expected.From an old organic chemist's perspective, if we are talking about artificial sweeteners specifically, saccharin and cyclamates got a lot of bad publicity in some studies that seemed a bit wonky on later examination. Aspartame, being just a peptide, should be harmless to anyone who isn't phenylketonuric. Steviol and associated glycosides likewise look pretty innocuous, biochemically speaking.The one that causes me concern, and that I am personally unwilling to consume, despite good looking test results, is sucralose. It's a halogenated sugar derivative and everything about it makes it look like it ought to be exactly the sort of alkylating agent (go look up Friedel–Crafts alkylation) that does absolutely fascinating things to DNA, and I don't want anywhere near my bone marrow. No, it's not AS active or aggressive as polychlorinated biphenyls, or alkyl chlorides in general, largely because they replaced only some of the hydroxyl groups present with chlorine atoms instead of all of them.And yes, I understand that it's such a potent sweetener that only a microscopic amount is present in any packet and the packet contents are almost entirely filler so the amount that actually gets into your body is tiny. It may not be 100% rational, but looking at the chlorine atoms hanging off the molecule gives me the creeps and I don't want to eat it. They banned all manner of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides in the US due to exactly this theoretical danger, and I don't sprinkle Chlordane in my coffee either, nor wash my mouth out with carbon tetrachloride in the morning.Of course, none of what I just said is intended to imply that putting lots of refined sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and related things into your body is an especially healthy habit either. It isn't. Most of us would be better off with a lot less sweet stuff in our diets, and a greater proportion of fresh fruit and less refined sugar.This is just the opinion of one anonymous guy on the Internet. It is worth what you paid for it.