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By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

Updated 1841 GMT (0241 HKT) October 26, 2020

Millions of Americans use tabletop artificial sweeteners each day. Millions more eat foods sweetened with combinations of the fake stuff. But just how healthy are they?<br /><br />The 137-year history of these nonnutritive options is full of health concerns, both overblown and real.
Photos: Where do we stand on artificial sweeteners?
Health effects of artificial sweeteners: Where do we stand? – Millions of Americans use tabletop artificial sweeteners each day. Millions more eat foods sweetened with combinations of the fake stuff. But just how healthy are they?

The 137-year history of these nonnutritive options is full of health concerns, both overblown and real.
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Oddly enough, it was bad laboratory technique -- combined with poor hygiene -- that led to the discovery of several of today's top artificial sweeteners. <br /><br />Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg was eating dinner when he made an amazing discovery: The roll he'd just bitten into tasted extremely sweet. Realizing the sugary, metallic taste had come from his own hands, he rushed back to the lab to find the source. After tasting everything in sight -- not exactly good lab safety protocol -- he discovered the sweetness came from an accidental chemical reaction between coal tar derivatives (yum!), producing <a href="http://www.britannica.com/science/saccharin#ref165773" target="_blank">benzoic sulfinide.</a><br /><br />That's one version of the story. Another account says Fahlberg's American boss, Dr. Ira Remsen, was the diner who forgot to wash up before eating. Regardless, it was Fahlberg who applied for a patent for saccharin as an inexpensive sugar substitute <br />