My rant and plea against artificial sweeteners.

My frustration with this has been building for a while. And while I will continue to refrain (mostly. sorry, Murphy) from maligning your soft drinks in front of you, i've got to say something.

When on earth did we decide that aspartame, NutraSweet, Splenda, Sweet n' Low, and a bevy of other shitty products were tasty, delicious, and something we wanted to put in our mouths 2-20 times per day?

Everyone i know drinks Diet soda, and they don't just have one. At work I see people keep a bottle of diet coke next to their desks all day. In the Cult of Diet Coke a woman states that she drinks her first D.C of the day in the shower. She would drink 10-15 a day if she could...another woman said that when she dines, if the restaurant doesn't have Diet Coke, she drinks water, but then crosses that place off of her list of acceptable places to go.

I used to drink at least 5 diet sodas in any given meal in a restaurant. I have a friend, whom I won't name, who once almost walked out of a very nice restaurant because they served their Diet Cokes one can at a time. No Free Refills...she was very upset, and it was going to mess up her whole day.

To me it's enough objective proof, at least, that diet soda is an addictive substance. I define those as anything that you feel you need to ingest, but gain nothing nutrition-wise from taking it in. Sugar is on that list too...along with white carbs...yum..er, i mean ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE!.

I invite you to take a test. Sit down somewhere quiet. Taste diet soda a like you would wine. It tastes sweet at first, but then there's a bitter part to it, and it tastes metallic.

Gross.