Was my initial stance of "never found anything" a hyperbole? Sure. Not much of one though.

But your stance of "there are a hundred studies saying X for every one saying Y, but because there are a small handful saying Y we shouldn't rule Y out" probably isn't the hard scientific truth you think it is. It's basically the same logic as being anti-vax.

And much like being anti-vax, it's examining aspartame in a vacuum, ignoring the fact that it's an alternative product to something that is factually shown to be more harmful, even in the best case scenario.

E.g.: Are vapes bad for you? Sure. Are they worse than cigarettes? Absolutely not. So even though the ideal is to probably use neither, I'd much rather somebody vape.

So this idea that "aspartame has, in a handful of studies (that go against the grain of the majority of studies) sometimes been shown to have negative effects, therefore artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar," is a braindead take.