Fountain of Diet Coke Truth!

So I like Diet Coke, sue me. Not only do I not need the calories, I actually like the way it tastes. I don't think I really need the caffeine, as a 12 oz. can only contains 35-40 mg anyway. Some 6 oz. cups of coffee have 80 mg and that's for a 6 oz. cup made the way the directions state. If you make it slightly stronger and have 2 10 oz. mugs, you're easily over the caffeine intake of 150 mg where most literature states caffeine(ism) symptoms can start. I normally have 2 cans a day so I'm topped out around 70-80 mg of caffeine. Yummy. Since I switched to Diet Coke about 10 years ago, I've noticed that I seem to like the taste better coming from a fountain source like McDonald's or the local convenience store. In fact, even though we buy Diet Coke by the case for the house, I sometimes find myself driving to McDonald's after I drop my daughter off for school to purchase a Diet Coke for way more than it would cost at home to have the same amount. Why? Well, I just found out about a week ago. Aspartame is used as the sweetener in Diet Coke when it's canned or bottled. However, when you get it from a fountain - the box of syrup has small amounts of saccharin mixed in because aspartame has a short shelf life in the syrup. The saccharin changes the taste ever so slightly and I love it. Mmmmm, saccharin. There's so much misinformation out there about diet soda, saccharin and aspartame that it's not funny.While I'll admit some of the chemicals affect some people in an adverse way - in the amounts in diet sodas - they don't hurt the general public. The tests from the 70's on saccharin were so wrong it's not funny. As it turns out, they now think the needles used for the injections to the mice may have caused the cancer. In the same exact type of lab mice used in those tests with the same needles - they developed cancer when injected with water! In 2000 congress repealed the law requiring a warning on products sweetened with saccharin. Also, the amounts used in the tests was about 50 times that of normal daily consumption. And aspartame? It's the most tested product ever by the FDA. Some people with certain medical conditions don't react well to it - but even at ridiculous amounts - there is no conclusive evidence that it's bad for you. Some tests show a correlation, but none of them were controlled - who knows what those people were eating? And the diet soda myth - that it can actually make you gain weight? Again, the test only followed a handful of people and the subjects answered questionnaires. No controlled testing. Nothing. If you weighed 350 pounds and drank diet soda for 5 years and then weighed 360 pounds....the test showed you as a diet soda drinker who gained weight! Don't believe me? Go to Wikiopedia and read all about it. Read the saccharin article. Read the aspartame article. Read the Diet Soda article. That's where these facts came from. Why was I compelled to read about Diet Coke on Wikipedia? Because a room full of engineers at work stuffing their faces with pizzeria pizza, potato chips, chocolate and leaded Coke thinks it amusing that I drink Diet Coke. I think of all things mentioned - the Diet Coke is the least likely to kill you! They felt pressured enough by consumers to make a Splenda version of DC. It uses sucralose which is real sugar minus the calorie chemical - or something like that. I tried it...didn't like the taste. Diet Coke, just for the taste of it......mmmmmm.