Aspartame: Not Worth Zero CaloriesFor decades, companies have marketed their products as cheaper and better for the consumer. With beverage manufacturers, each company was trying to make the best drinks, and when it came time to make their drinks “healthier,” competition intensified. For decades, these companies have competed to offer the lowest calorie drink. If we look at the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, each has released several products claiming that they contain zero calories, but this does not mean that these drinks are necessarily better for the consumer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay Over the past year and years before, a scandal broke out over the use of aspartame in many diet soft drinks. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in most diet soft drinks. Aspartame has recently been discovered to have many adverse health side effects. In an article on “Collective Evolution,” he explains how aspartame has been linked to metabolic diseases and digestive tract abnormalities. Non-caloric artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, have been shown to "alter the population of gut bacteria that drive metabolism, the conversion of food into stored energy or fuel." Since this discovery, aspartame has been eliminated from Diet Pepsi, but it still exists in many diet soft drinks. This is an example of how media affects the way the consumer processes their eating and drinking habits. Unfortunately, what the media tells the consumer isn't always true (go figure.) It's a horrible aspect of society, but that's another debate. The media has long portrayed many things as healthy. For example, cigarettes were said to have great health benefits when they were commercially introduced to the market, but today they are a leading cause of cancer. In an attempt to make the consumer healthier, or appear so, and beat the competition, these cola companies have actually harmed their customers in the long run. This falls into the broad category of “nonsense du jour.” It is absolutely absurd that more studies are not being done on the ingredients found in drinks consumed by millions of people every day. It's understandable that it's difficult to predict long-term effects, but when something like artificial sweeteners turns out to cause adverse health effects, it would make sense to find a better, actually healthier way. , to solve the problem of having aspartame in soft drinks. To add to this absurdity, the media will always be guilty. There is such a push for better health in the media, but when things like this happen, it would make sense to advertise against it from now on. The use of aspartame was not even publicized until recent years. Most of the time, the average consumer does not realize what they are ingesting. This is a lack of understanding of science. Indeed, the process of removing calories from a drink to make it “healthier” is indeed scientific. Companies need chemists to find compounds that can be added to their product to make it taste like its real sweet counterpart, without the calories. It is..