You're dry as a bone, so you pop open a fizzy diet drink and are about to take a giant swig when a friend scoffs, "Don'tcha know that's poison?"

You roll your eyes and shoot back, "Look, we're all going to die anyway, so let me enjoy!"

It's a legitimate point. But if you want to play beat the clock, you're in, because Aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde in your body. Yes, that formaldehyde - the embalming agent. It can stiffen you up, but not where you'd like.

"Just shoot me!" you're thinking.

Not yet. The FDA recently announced that formaldehyde causes cancer. In fact, Dr. Adrian Gross, the FDA's own toxicologist, told Congress, "Without a shadow of a doubt, Aspartame can cause brain tumors and brain cancer." It's also interesting to note that for 16 years, Aspartame was not allowed in foods or beverages or anything that humans would consume.

And that's just the tip of the Aspartame iceberg of cold, hard facts.

In May 2011, the EU Commission asked for an Urgent Review of Aspartame by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The EFSA deemed Aspartame safe in 2006, 2009, and 2010, but the artificial sweetener keeps turning up like...um, well, a corpse in a horror movie.