[rsynnott]

> Humans eat sugars for thousands of years now

Indeed, and that has been plenty of time to discover that, in excess, it kills us. Despite intense scrutiny, there is no reason to think that the same goes for aspartame, which is the only sweetener used in significant amounts in soft drinks in the UK, and thus the only one promoted by this levy.

[agurk]

I don't have an opinion on the health effects of sweeteners, but as I noted in a longer comment on this page, multiple sweeteners are commonly used together and aspartame is far from universal in the mix.

[waihtis]

Research suggests that aspartame increases the risk of:

    -certain types of cancer, including lymphoma, leukemia, urinary tract tumors, and neurological tumors

    -type 2 diabetes

    -preterm delivery

    -toxicity in the kidneys

    -toxic liver disease

    -harmful changes to the salivary glands

Your "completely safe without question" additive, sir

[xigoi]

Is there any food that doesn’t cause cancer according to some study?

[AlexeyBelov]

Can you cite the paper, I'm very intrigued.