The following appeared in the health section of a magazine on trends and lifestyles “People who use the artificial sweetener aspartame are better off consuming sugar, since aspartame can actually contribute to weight gain rather than weight loss. For exam

The argument claims that people who consume aspartame, the artificial sweetener are fortunate than who consume sugar to gain weight rather than weight loss. The assumptions for this statement as per the author is high levels of aspartame have shown crave for food by depleting the brain of a chemical which shows the sense of being full. The author assumes that consuming high level of the drug makes the brain function in such a way that it increases the need for food, which results in weight gain. The author presents another evidence if sugars are consumed after at least 45 minutes of continuous exercise; it helps the body in burning fat. On the contrary, he mentions that consuming aspartame-sweetened juices after exercise will lose calorie-burning benefit. Therefore, he concludes that consuming aspartame rather than sugar is not useful to achieve a diet goal. Here, the author manipulates the facts and conveys a distorted view of the situation. Hence, the argument is weak and has several flaws.

Firstly, the argument readily assumes that consuming high levels of aspartame shows crave for food and shows renders a sense of being full known as satiety, by depleting the brain of a chemical. But, the author has not given any evidence whether consuming low level of the drug or moderate level of the drug as prescribed by a doctor also results in to the same situation consuming high level of aspartame results in to crave for food, consequently resulting in weight gain. It might be possible that consuming high level of aspartame results in crave for food resulting in weight gain. But consuming the quantity of drug as prescribed by the doctor may be useful for the one who wants to control his diet and lose his weight. Hence, the argument could have been much clearer if the author explicitly had stated a thorough example.

Secondly, the argument claims that sugar, if consumed after 45 minutes of continuous exercise helps in burning calories. Additionally, states that aspartame-sweetened juices are of no help in burning calories. Here, it might be possible that the aspartame-sweetened juices also contain ingredients which are not useful in burning calories rather than increasing adding calories. There is no specific evidence that only aspartame is the main ingredient which does not help to burn calories. Sweetened juices contain many ingredients which are not healthy and increases fats. The assumption of the author here is again unconvincing.

In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. It could be considerably strengthened if the author had clearly mentioned all the relevant facts as comparing sugar with aspartame, and not sugar with aspartame contained juice; and specific examples which gives positive impact of sugar rather than that of aspartame. In order to assess the merits of a certain situation, it is essential to have full knowledge of all contributing factors. Ultimately, this argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.