Aspartame BITTERSWEET: Is this the beginning of the end for aspartame? Is the writing finally on the wall for aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet and sugar-free drinks and foods? There’s been a very active campaign to keep the lid on a devastating catalogue of diseases linked to the sweetener, but in recent weeks we’ve noticed a few straws in the wind. Some brave souls have put together a film, Sweet Misery, which documents “one of the most pervasive, insidious forms of corporate negligence in history”, as a spokesman has put it.