I mentioned “The Specific Carbohydrate Diet” and I believe aspartame has been considered a “legal” but controversial substitute for other carbs in the SCD diet, so that might explain the comments.

Aspartame should never have been approved, and the history of how it was approved should serve as an example of the importance of keeping unscrupulous people far away from positions of power and the need to keep industry influence in government agencies under control. Few people would trust Donald Rumsfeld to care about their health…
(See: http://www.wnho.net/history_of_aspartame.htm).

Aspartame use seems to be declining but it is still very high. It is a 637 million dollar industry and suggested to be ‘the most contested’ FDA approval in history.
(See http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/31/aspartame-update.aspx)