> If you look on Wikipedia, you’ll see that aspartame is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid phenylalanine dipeptide, which isn’t, like, comforting.

The aversion most people have to anything sounding chemical is crazy.

Chemically speaking, this is a relatively simple molecule. „Dipeptide“ means it consists of two amino acids, which are ubiquitous and make up every protein. „Methyl ester“ is the product of a reaction between an acid, in this case the amino acid phenylalanine, and an alcohol, in this case methanol. Also very common throughout chemistry and biology.