In my opinion moderation is key. Too much of anything is bad! I quit drinking diet sodas for about 2 months because I was drinking about 4 litres a day! Now, well I'm drinking them again but in moderation. I can go weeks without it. Now I drink water like mad! Next, new research will tell me to quit drinking so much water.
Does that mean that quinine 'can't be good' despite being created in a laboratory? Or distilled water? Or vitamins? Penicillin?
I make an effort to avoid artificial sweeteners, but I think it's much better to judge things on the effects they have on people rather than based simply on how they were created.
Laboratories can produce things that are 'good', nature can produce things that are 'bad' - the nice thing about your liver though, is that it can strain out some 'bad' from either source as long as it doesn't become overwhelmed with large quantities. So moderation and education are both good things
