Do you drink diet soda? Does it ever concern you that it might affect your health?

With sales dropping, Coca-Cola must recognize that a lot of us are concerned about the long-term health affects of artificial sweeteners… so it’s fighting back.

Today, Coca-Cola ran a HUGE full-page ad in USA Today in the Atlanta region defending the safety of using the sugar substitute aspartame in their soda. The ads go nationwide tomorrow.

The ad says: “The Safety of aspartame is supported by more than 200 studies over 40 years.” What I want to know is: Who did those studies? How big were they?

But seriously, if you have to defend the safety of your product there is something definitely wrong with what you’re selling. This isn’t a food product that has been tampered with… this is something that they make from a formula to sell to us.

We know now that drinking sugary drinks, diet or otherwise, can create increased sugar cravings in some people (like Mama). Do you think Coca-Cola knows something they’re not telling us?

Remember when coke wanted to “Teach The World To Sing?” How about teaching the world about aspartame, rather than just running a massive ad campaign?

A few weeks ago, Mama told y’all about Coca-Cola’s new ad campaign attempting to deflect some of their responsibility for our nation’s epidemic of child and adult obesity.

Well, my good friends at the Center for Science in the Public Interest have taken it upon themselves to, as they put it, translate “Coke-speak into plain, everyday English.”

This is mildly humorous, interesting and, above all, very sad because it is very true. Have a look and let me know what you think: