[copperx]

If we go to the extreme, coffee is potentially carcinogenic (charred beans -> acrylamide, but research is inconclusive), and tea contains mercury, fluoride, and arsenic.

It's hard to say whether aspartame is worse or better than tea and coffee.

[i_am_proteus]

People have been drinking coffee and tea for over one thousand years, my friend.

[copperx]

People have been smoking for over seven thousand years and consuming alcohol for over nine thousand years. What is your point?

[mgarfias]

Probably that if there were bad side effects from coffee or tea, we’d know about it. Like we know about alcohol’s.

[i_am_proteus]

Precisely. And we knew about smoking's, centuries before scientific studies conclusively proved the harm.