[cschmidt]

According to the New Scientist article others have linked to, the equivalent human dose was 9-12 packets of sweetener a day. I'm sure there are heavy coffee drinkers that go through that much.

I also don't like those studies where the human equivalent dose is like 50 pounds of sweetener a day, or something silly. This one isn't so bad.

[mcmancini]

I guess I'm having trouble figuring out where the numbers are coming from.

I'm seeing that the FDA recommended maximum dose for aspartame is 50mg/kg/day. Assuming a 70kg Standard Man, that's 3.5g/day of aspartame. Diet Coke has 125mg per 12oz. can, so that would be 28 cans/day. Each packet should be around 35mg aspartame, so 100 packets/day (the amount of aspartame per packet was hard to find, and the approx. was from an American Cancer Society article).

Agreed that 9–12 packets doesn't sound like much, but I think we're talking way more than that.

[whyenot]

For comparison, that amount of sweetener (9-12 packets) is found in about 3 cans of Diet Coke (35mg aspartame per packet, 125mg per Diet Coke). I suspect there are quite a few people who consume more than that in a day.