The sound of popping cans and bags opening, slurping sounds from straws, and cans. We already know about how fast foods and snacks are bad for our body, but people don’t recognize the dangers of Aspartame, a common sugar substitute in snacks and drinks.

Aspartame is a chemical that is used as a substitute for sugar in diet and reduced sugar foods and drinks, like Diet Coke. To put it bluntly, it’s an artificial sweetener that tastes 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Aspartame is used inside of products that we consume so much. Diet Coca Cola, Sprite Zero, Trident and Extra gum, Jell-O, foods you would find in your local King Soopers or Walmart. 

There has been a limit on every item to how much aspartame is allowed to be put in any certain drink. In America, the FDA has set the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. So if you were to drink a 12 ounce of Diet Coke, that’s about 200 mg of aspartame – meaning the average teenager weighing around 136 lbs would have to drink about 15 cans to reach the daily limit. This seems like a small amount, but the overall fact that Aspartame has to be regulated so thoroughly should tell you that it’s dangerous.

There has been animal research conducted about the effects of aspartame and how it can affect humans neurologically. A study conducted using mice as the test subjects has found that an increase in consuming aspartame can slow the brain’s ability to process information.

“The mice in the aspartame-free control group found the ‘safe’ box quickly. Those that ingested aspartame took much longer to learn the task,” reported researchers of Developmental Neuroscience at Florida State University.

With just 15 percent of the FDA regulated amount of aspartame inside of the mice’ bodies, it was shown to create  slower cognitive performance when put into a maze box, needing more time or help to complete the maze.

The difference with this case study is that we are humans, not mice. As the proof is shown in mice we can not automatically assume that it can affect us as well. However, if mice are struggling this much, it’s likely that we’d be harmed by the sugar too.

Due to the lack of research conducted on humans we still don’t know if the possibilities can harm our brain. We can still consume products containing aspartame, but in moderation until we can better understand the science behind it. So the next time you’re drinking a Diet Coke, give the fake sugar a thought before you down the soda.