Consuming the chemical sweetners...yeah or neah?

Personally, I don't like Splenda but I do like other artificial sweetners. There's a new study out there or maybe it's old or maybe it's just another study but regardless there's a debate on whether artifical sweetners are good or bad for us. Do they add the pounds? Are they like pouring toxic chemicals into our bodies? It's hard to tell I suppose because every one has their own opinion and like all studies there are flaws and paid supporters and blah, blah, blah. I think the better question here is would you rather put something natural into your body or something man made and chemically processed? The common sense answer to this, for me, is the natural products. Not so easy to do seeing that most things at the grocery store seem to have artificial sweetners added and if you aren't looking closely it is easy to miss this.

Diet sodas are something I actually love and I guess you could say I was addicted to them but was it the caffenie or the sweetners? Maybe both. It seems like our society is so concerned with sheding pounds and doing whatever it takes that they'll drink and eat the artificial sweetners but at what risk to themselves? There are other alternatives to cutting back calories like eating more fruits and veggies and drinking water. There's the inch loss plan that has a natural energy tea. My new take on this is that I don't know if the artificial stuff is going to harm me or not but I'm choosing to avoid it and use it in moderation (diet soda every now and then). I'm figuring that airing on the side of caution might be a good thing.

Articles that you might consider reading....

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4271246&page=1

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=4271986&page=1

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/

http://thyroid.about.com/b/2004/07/08/are-artificial-sweeteners-sabotaging-your-weight-loss-efforts.htm

http://www.dietsoda.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/nutrition/05symp.html