Consumer group urges FDA to reconsider aspartame warnings

Will the debate over aspartame ever end? Though the FDA seems to firm in their decision not to label the artificial sweetener as dangerous, a consumer group is urging the FDA to rethink their stance based on studies done in Italy that linked aspartame to leukemia, lymphoma, and breast cancer in rats. The study allowed the rats, 4,000 of them, to live out their natural lives and found that the rats, when exposed to aspartame over their life time, were much more likely to develop certain cancers. Other tests on aspartame only lasted two years, after which the rats were killed.

The FDA says it won't be changing its stance any time soon, but the Center for Science in the Public Interest -- a consumer group -- says that because aspartame is easy to avoid, consumers should steer clear. What do you think?