Your question really deals more with the potential effects of the methanol in aspartame than with aspartame itself. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener made up of two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, and an alcohol, methanol. Aspartame is used because it's about 200 times sweeter than table sugar. Since 1 gram of aspartame (with essentially no calories) can replace 2 teaspoons of sugar (at 16 calories per teaspoon), foods made with aspartame have many fewer calories than they would if sugar was used. Unlike other food substitutes such as the artificial fat olestra, aspartame is digested by your body. ...