Real or fake sugar: Does it matter?

Coca-Cola ad defends use of aspartame
Coca-Cola ad defends use of aspartame


    Coca-Cola ad defends use of aspartame


Coca-Cola ad defends use of aspartame 03:14

Story highlights

  • Science doesn't have all the answers yet to questions about artificial sweeteners
  • There is no clear evidence that artificial sweeteners cause cancer in humans
  • Expert: The healthiest people eat a healthy diet and have limited intake of any type of sweetener




Of course, you can always avoid the controversy altogether by replacing soda with water or dessert with fresh fruit. But if you're going to consume artificial sweeteners, we thought you should know the answers to some key questions:

What are artificial sweeteners made of?





Sugary drinks linked to 180,000 deaths worldwide

How are artificial sweeteners different from natural sweeteners?







Do artificial sweeteners cause cancer?




Is aspartame safe?


Are sweeteners better or worse than sugar?





Sugar substitutes may make weight loss tougher


So how much is too much?

The FDA recommends ingesting no more than 50 milligrams of aspartame per kilogram of body weight every day. That amounts to 22 cans of diet soda for a 175-pound man, and 15 cans for a 120-pound woman. If you're putting two packets of artificial sugar into coffee, that would be about 116 cups of coffee for the man in this example, and 79 cups for the woman.

"I really think that if you are consuming five or six cans a day, you may have more problems from consuming too much caffeine or acid than from the sweeteners," Walters said.

No large, controlled studies have shown that there is a limit to how much diet soda you can consume without harm if you're keeping the rest of your diet in check, Popkin said. So far, at least, human research has not shown that quantity of artificial sweetener matters.

"It's not whether it's 2 or 6 or 10," Popkin said. "It's a question of what else they do with their diet that counts."

Bottom line?

As with most things in life, artificial sweeteners aren't dangerous in moderation.

Researchers will continue seeking answers to these questions and CNN will continue to report on the latest findings, in pursuit of the soda fountain of youth.

Health Library: Artificial sweeteners and other sugar substitutes