I’m having trouble finding (googling) anything about “aspartame syndrome” other than one guy telling us it exists and to be very, very scared. But the rest of his web site seems to be a bunch of pseudo-scientific gobbledegook and a highly questionable weight loss plan. In particular, he specifically tells us to believe testamonials, which is absolutely how you should NOT go about gathering data.
Myths about aspartame have been floating around for years, primarily that it causes headaches and migraines. However, two clinical studies (all of them that I’m aware of) both found that they effect vanished when properly blinded – i.e. aspartame only causes headaches if you know you’re drinking it. Basically, headaches are a common symptom in people, and confirmation bias tends to associate it with aspartame – also very common in most people’s diets (at least a couple of years ago, sucralose (Splenda) seems to have taken over now.)
I don’t know that “aspartame syndrome” doesn’t exist, but I follow medical quackery as a hobby, and this one sounds like it. Aspartame was extensively tested before approval, and no study that I’m aware of (big caveat, I’m afraid) has yet shown any negative impact under clinical conditions. Certainly it’s still used in a huge variety of foods and hasn’t been pulled by the same FDA that seems to be yanking medicines left and right on barely-statistically-significant hints of danger.
And, to answer your question, yes: pretty much every rumor I’ve heard about aspartame I’ve also heard about Splenda, Saccarine (which does have clinical evidence that it causes cancer at obscenely high doses, but again, doesn’t appear to have any effect in real populations), Asulfame-K, and plain old sugar. The Internet has been getting too good at dispersing urban legend and rumor these days: no one seems to care much about the truth as opposed to a good story, or even know how to go about finding it.
Heck, the dihydrogen monoxide scam is all over the Internet, and people are still falling for it after all these years.
Here are some people who disagree with me, incidentally: Aspartame (and everything else) Scare Site They have a delightful habit of reporting meta-studies as “proof” of all sorts of things, and clinical trials as “obviously fabricated by FDA officials who went to work for the Aspartame industry.” Quite refreshing, really.
Since there’s piles of supposedly accurate information both ways, the best thing to do is just never eat again 