I’ve seen a lot of suggestions that artificial sweeteners are no better than sugar. They fail to mention how the decrease in sugar consumption will correspond with an increase in artificial sweetener consumption, which have also been linked to obesity, diabetes, and gut problems caused by damage to the microbiome. So there is no guarantee this has improved public health.

I mean of course “the amount of sugar consumed by children in soft drinks” will decrease if half of it is replaced with aspartame. Whether this is actually a good thing is the question