Free Republic

Sugar substitutes found in many supermarket foods have been shown to kill off antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause pneumonia and sepsis. Three artificial sweeteners used in products such as diet drinks, yogurts and desserts dramatically halt the growth of multidrug-resistant priority pathogens, but they also reduce the bacteria's resistance to commonly used antibiotics, meaning fewer are needed. This discovery could lead the fight against superbugs. "Artificial sweeteners are present in all diet and sugar-free foods," said Dr. Ronan McCarthy. "We discovered that these same sweeteners that you have with your coffee or in your 'sugar-free' soda could kill very dangerous bacteria...

In response to falling sales of diet soda, last year PepsiCo changed the sweetener in its main calorie-free beverage, Diet Pepsi. Noting the health concerns that some customers have about the original sweetener in Diet Pepsi, aspartame, the company switched to a different sweetener last year to try to reverse a sales decline. Now sales are declining even faster. Customers had time to adjust to the idea of Diet Pepsi without aspartame, since rumors about sweetener tests have appeared in these very pages since 2012. The version of the beverage sweetened with a blend of sucralose (Splenda) and acesulfame potassium...