I’m sure this is a topic that has been debated here ad nauseum but since I switched from drinking full sugar drinks to diet drinks I’ve got used to the constant “Oh, I wouldn’t drink that, it’s bad for you, it causes cancer” line from most of my peers. This idea is fairly widespread. Is there anything in it? Does anyone actually buy Diet soft drinks or is everyone afraid of catching cola cancer?
There is no credible evidence that aspartame has any deleterious effects. Enjoy.
ETA: Here’s Cecil’s thoughts on the subject.
A new study confirms no link between aspartame and cancer.
The FDA found no problems with sucralose (Splenda).
For soft drinks, Saccharin is pretty much only used in Tab, which I haven’t seen in its original form for years. (It’s now an energy drink that uses sucralose.) Plus, the studies link it to cancer in rats were dubious and have been refuted by later studies. It hasn’t had to have a cancer warning label since 2000. (Wikipedia)
Artificial sweeteners aren’t the only concern, however. There was a study that came out this week that suggested that Cola drinks (diet included) are linked to kidney diseases.
Article .
I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t cause cancer, several studies have come out recently saying that one soda a day does increase your risk for certain kinds of cancer and heart disease.
Since it doesn’t matter whether the soda is diet or regular, I’d say the answer to your question is Yes, diet soda does cause cancer, but not in any higher rates than regular soda does.
On preview I see that we can add Kidney Disease to the list… Thanks Richard Parker.
Can you cite that? All my googling turns up are crackpots. And man, are there a lot of crackpots…
Like the American Cancer Society is covering it up because they so don’t want to prevent people from getting cancer. Then they’d be out of a job.
So why do you hang around with people that gullible? And do you really want to lower yourself to being a peer with them?
I think part of the problem is there is a deluge of often conflicting information of varying quality from popular media about what does and doesn’t cause cancer and other diseases. If I read a quality newspaper every day I’d say at least once a week I’ll read an article about how artichokes give you colon cancer or something like that.
Well, a couple of suggestions then:
- Don’t look to the “popular media” for your medical advice.
- Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.
Doing that would relieve a lot of your worries.
This is why I stick to beer.
That works well.
If any newspaper does write a story saying beer causes cancer, you’re too hammered to read it anyway! 
So cola drinks in general might be bad for you? Maybe I should get back to drinking ginger ale.
My MIL says diet cokes cause you to grow crystals in (or perhaps under- I don’t know, my brain shut down right at that point) your skin!!
Wouldn’t that make you the coolest kid at the rave.
“Dude! Your skin is so sparkly!”
What about the benzene in some sodas, in the form of potassium (or sodium) benzoate? Supposedly benzene is hazardous. I’m wondering if the studies cleared simple aspartame, or the entire brew of chemicals in the soft drink.
Sailboat
Chlorine is a deadly poisonous green gas. Sodium reacts violently with water. Sodium chloride is essential to human life and yummy on home fries.
As for potassium benzoate, it’s a widely used preservative in acidic foods and drinks, approved by the FDA and European regulators.
Under some unusual circumstances, it can break down and form benzene, which is a known carcinogen. However, this appears to be extraordinarily rare and studies thus far have not shown benzene to exist in dangerous amounts in soft drinks. However, the FDA looks at this one regularly, and more in-depth studies may be available soon.
Here’s why a nice course in biostatistics or epidemiology would pay off for everyone. The paper didn’t say “cola causes kidney stones,” all it can say is that there is a correlation between people who drink cola, and people who have kidney stones. Of the people who have kidney stones, a higher proportion are likely to have kidney stones (or, conversely, those who drink cola have a higher proportion of kidney stones than those who don’t.) It doesn’t necessarily mean that cola causes, or even increases the risk, of kidney stones. Clearly, more studies need to be done, but a newspaper would much rather take the study and turn around and say “cola can cause kidney stones!” because it’s more sensational.
My MIL has been drinking coca cola since she was very young and she is now 84 years old. She has no physical problems. So, go figure! 
Here’s the thing, there’s so MANY people drinking diet soda these days that if there was ANY health effect that was even close to trivial, it would stand out in the data like a sore thumb. I very much doubt you have anything to worry about apart from the previously documented stuff about diet sodas (they’re still bad for your teeth mostly).