In the body, when the artificial sweetener aspartame is digested, it is broken down into the metabolites phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. While methanol can be toxic in high amounts, the amounts that result from the digestion of aspartame in the body is lower than the likely exposure would be from many “natural” foods that contain methanol, like fruits and vegetables. According to American Cancer Society, drinking a liter of diet soda with aspartame would lead to the consumption of 55 milligrams (mg) of methanol, as compared to as much as 680 mg of methanol from a liter of fruit juice.