I agree with jimrat.

While I drank diet soda for years, I knew it was bad for me as it contained chemicals made in a lab, not something you would find in nature.

He's exactly right about aspertame. The company that produces it couldn't get the FDA to pass it so they hired Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense to head the company and force it through. Aspertame is now referred to as the Rumsfeld Plugue in the alternative health community as it causes MS-type symptoms. To add to the yuck factor, aspertame is made from e-coli feces!!