The after taste made me not like or want drinks sweetened with it. As far as long range that is true for so many things we eat or drink. Anything to excess. They tell me now that tomatoes are bad for arthritis..... Maybe eating to many tomatoes destroyed my hips? I have no clue. I eat a very wide spectrum of vegetables and avoid offal meats. My mother used to could eat a stick of butter a day and cook with lard. She avoided nothing. She lacked days of living to be 100. She was shut in a room to protect her from COVID but we think COVID is what killed her because she couldn't even visit with people in the room next to her. We had made plans for her 100th bday party.Yes, but sometimes it is a long term, cumulative effect. Aspartame gave me headaches, so I never used it much. Plus a nasty aftertaste.