“It turns into formaldehyde in your gut and causes neurological damage.”
.
The ‘aldehyde’ part depends on the presence of copper in your intestines, but without it it remains as methanol, which is worse.
I suspect that the breakdown of aspartame is worse in hot beverages, i.e., coffee, tea, etc. For those I use plain sugar.
I drink diet pop instead of “sugar” pop due to the high fructose corn syrup in “sugar” pop. The corn syrup gives my stomach fits.
Sacharin causes severe intestinal distress for some people. I am in that category.
Splenda is OK. My boss is diabetic, his family uses it even in baking, stuff turns out decent.
Methanol isn’t toxic at first - the formaldehyde it forms down the pathway of your metabolism is. It gives you a headache, blindness, death - depending on e.g. the dose.
Antidot is ethanol - keeps the enzymes busy lowering the amount of Seawater (CH2O - formaldehyde) your liver is producing from the methanol. So if you want to get pissed on healthcare cost - claim you accidentally got some methanol in your guts.