Artificially Splendid?

The L.A. Times reports today that the new sweetener made from suger called Splenda is seen as safe by most nutritionists.  It was kind of frightening how this article implied that the other sweeteners have problems, yet didn't explain what those problems are. 
 
I noted one nutritionist who has the same sensibility as me, so although she thinks Splenda's safe she will not eat it because she has an aversion to "fake foods."  Seemingly without this aversion, this article lists the myriad companies who are already incorporating Splenda into their low carb products. 
 
I read an article long ago that asserts:  when the body consumes artificial sweeteners it doesn't get its expected sugar/calories and reacts badly.  I've forgotten the exact mechanisms that involve the regulation and/or production of insulin--but I believe the article stated that sweeteners cause an overproduction of insulin which can bring on diabetes over time. 
 
The end of the L.A. Times article points out the same issue without mentioning insulin or diabetes--that artificial sweeteners fool the body into expecting sugar.  Susan Swithers, a psychological scientist at Purdue University recently tested two groups of rats for 10 days.  One group ate sugar, the other had sugar solution as well the artificial sweetener saccharin.  When the "diet" was over, the rats were permitted to eat what the wanted.  The artificially sweetened rats (-: binged on three times as many calories as the rats that had consumed just sugar.   Swithers explains her findings, "Because artificially sweetened foods don't deliver the calories our bodies expect, they interfere with the body's natural ability to predict caloric content based on taste."  Bingo.  Our bodies get mixed up when we "fake" them out.  The concern in the article is dieters' behavior and binging (dieters using artificial sweeteners may actually consume more calories, such as two pieces of low-carb cake, rather than one full caloried piece of cake).  But my biological concern is that faking out our bodies' digestive systems just doesn't seem like a good idea.  Definitely not in sinc, balance, or even trust with the mind and body! 

I've also had friends tell me about friends they've had that have found cancer growths (big tumors easily removed) that they believe were grown by the chemicals in diet drinks.  

I have no way of proving the diabetic/cancer theories, it's all hearsay.  But I take this hearsay and my own instincts into account when I'm tasting something that has an odd, unpleasant aftertaste.  My own body is telling me, "if this tastes bad, it's probably not good for you." That is a simple, physical aversion which I see as a healthy evolutionary gift worth using.
 
Kelly, Alice Lesch, "Dieters will have another option." Los Angeles Times, Health section, F1 - F4.