This week, Emily and Perry dive into the sweet, calorie-free world of artificial sweeteners. What poor lab hygiene brought them into existence? Do they actually make us fatter and/or cause cancer? What regulatory shenanigans got us so scared of aspertame? And, most importantly, why is Diet Coke seriously so good? Plus: an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York, hot beverages and esophageal cancer, and a frightening new opioid has entered the chat.  Submit a question for our weekly mailbag at wellnessactually.fm. Submit a ridiculous wellness trend for next week's grab bag episode here!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.