Mrs.Muscles, keep drinking your one or two diet soda pops a day and don't pay any attention to BS. Diet soda pop won't hurt you.
For example, for many years people vilified saccharin(Sweet'n Low in the pink pockets), which has been around since 1878. For a while saccharin had a warning label saying that it caused cancer in lab rats. Eventually the warning label was removed because no evidence was found linking it to cancer in humans.
My great-grandparents used Saccharin most of their life because they were diabetics. They lived well into their 80s and 90s without ever developing cancer.
Theodore Roosevelt used it, and he never developed cancer. In fact, he said "Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot."
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WhatWeDo/History/ProductRegulation/SelectionsFromFDLIUpdateSeriesonFDAHistory/ucm091680.htm
Countries like Canada are considering lifting their previous ban of saccharin as a food additive "following the evaluation of data indicating that it is not carcinogenic to humans".
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/addit/sweeten-edulcor/saccharin_qa-qr-eng.php
If the claims about artificial sweeteners were true, there would be tons of evidence linking them to cancer in humans, similar to the evidence we see linking tobacco to cancer in humans.
I speak of saccharin because it has been around the longest, which in itself is a testament to its safety, but the same applies to other artificial sweeteners used today.
Mrs.Muscles, I have a completely different opinion than the one quoted above.
Saccharin is a carcinogen, and diet soda with aspartame (NutraSweet or whatever deceptive marketing name they choose to call) is unhealthy. Aspartame is a neurotoxin that was improperly approved by the FDA. Prior to it's introduction into the North American food supply, it appeared on the Pentagon's list of biological warfare agents. Soda in itself is not part of a healthy diet, and it is hell on the complexion.
Just because Loco's great grandparents used saccharin, but didn't develop cancer means nothing. There are plenty of people who smoked all their lives, but don't develop cancer, while others who never smoked a single cigarette do. His great grandparents lived in a different place and time. A time when foods actually had nutritional value, nutrition easily bio-available to the body to build strong bodies with strong immune systems. They also lived in a time when adulterated foods and mass fluoridation of the water supply wasn't everywhere. Fluoride is toxic industrial waste that acts as an adjuvant accelerating the potency & absorption of the poisons and toxins we consume. We are eating GMOs that produce poisons. GMO corn has been engineered to self produce poisonous pesticides... so much so that corn is no longer considered a vegetable. It is now officially an insecticide. The US food supply rarely uses sugar. It's all high fructose corn syrup. Another way to say it is
'It's all high fructose insecticide syrup'. Couple all the fluoride absorbed into your skin via bathing & showering, ...and you've got poisonous insecticides, improperly disposed pharmaceuticals, and neurotoxins etc. etc. etc. on steroids. The human body is under constant assault from the foods we eat, the air we breath, the prevalence of wireless technology etc. that it just makes sense to make the healthiest choices possible, ...and diet soda isn't one of them.
As far as sweeteners are concerned, you might want to stay away from sucralose (chlorine & bacteria poop)
We usually do our best to avoid poop. We try not to step on it walking down the street, ...why should we choose to put it into our mouths, ...and swallow it? If you're looking to avoid sugar, why not give stevia a try?