A few problems with the rather sensationalist headline: 1.) As others have said, mice are not people. Mouse metabolism is quite a bit faster than humans, so le

A few problems with the rather sensationalist headline: 1.) As others have said, mice are not people. Mouse metabolism is quite a bit faster than humans, so let's not get too hasty about conclusions. It might be real, but this is suggestive of further research, no more. 2.) The concentration of aspartame in soda is quite low (aspartame is many fold sweeter than sugar). From the article: "However, aspartame does not block the enzyme directly. It does so through one of its intestinal breakdown products called phenylalanine." Phenylalanine is a regular old amino acid. I'd have loved to see whether the same effects are recapitulated when you feed high-phenylalanine foods, an alternative test of the hypothesis. 3.) From the article: "The amount of sweetener solution given to the normal diet group was equivalent to a human drinking three-and-a-half cans of soda a day. For the high-fat group it amounted to the equivalent of two cans." "In the end, there were hardly any noticeable differences between the two groups of mice that were fed a normal diet." They go on to mention that there were some possible glucose sensitivity and inflammation differences, but these are hardly conclusive findings. Again, more research, particularly in humans, is warranted. They also talk about effects on the high-fat mice, which is fine as far as it goes, but again, see number 1.) All in all, I think deep breath, some caution, and looking at studies that actually involve humans might be warranted before such strong claims are believed. Here's a few (some open, some closed) that look at aspartame and human diet: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0031938490902542 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/00319384909... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24595225 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24595225 And here's a fascinating article on a new human hormone that has been found the old fashioned way (genetic anomaly) in regulating appetite and metabolism: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/sunday/the-thin-gene.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/opinion/sunday/the-thin-ge...