White Man said:
Of course they are
The initial claim of the Snopes link is one that addresses the fear mongering about aspartame. The way it is initially stated, you can't ever really prove anything, so of course it is false.
If you actually read the links, the FDA itself says "Carefully controlled clinical studies show that aspartame is not an allergen. However, certain people with the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU), and pregnant women with hyperphenylalanine (high levels of phenylalanine in blood) have a problem with aspartame because they do not effectively metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, one of aspartame's components. High levels of this amino acid in body fluids can cause brain damage. Therefore, FDA has ruled that all products containing aspartame must include a warning to phenylketonurics that the sweetener contains phenylalanine. "
Now, that isn't the general populace. The one news article cited as saying aspartame is safe doesn't really do that at all. It only says the cognitive abilities of people who consume lots of it for 4 months doesn't decrease. What does that say about cancer? Nothing.
A quick search of ACS Pubs yields this article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=29a262ffaf7d5d51a9a051bd106648de
Which basically says, aspartame may be causing formaldehyde to accumulate in the tissue. Which just happens to be a suspected carcinogen.
So what does that tell me? We should probably be investigating it further and I don't feel comfortable consuming it. A quick glance at its original approval process that declared as okay to use it in foods also makes it seem pretty sketchy. It's only been around in food for 30 years or so, which isn't that long.