According to the FDA, yes, and most other nutritional scientists agree. They have no DIRECT health effect, good or bad (no matter what you read on the internet). However, in the big picture, here is what’s happening: About 300,000 people die each year from weight-related diseases caused by eating too many calories over their lifetime. The number one source of calories in the American diet is from sugared beverages; #2 is from cakes and sweet-rolls -- all in which sugars supply huge amounts of calories.
There are no calories in artificial sweeteners (AS) so they do not contribute to weight related or any other death tolls. Those are the facts so you can make up your mind. But if you ask me (which you did), if it wasn’t for artificial sweeteners (keep in mind AS undergo more scientific scrutiny than any food or drug before it can enter the marketplace), our society would be significantly fatter. In the big picture, artificial sweeteners help people satisfy their eating urges without calories. The US population is already extremely overweight. Who knows where we’d be without artificial sweeteners! And there is new evidence that AS can have a positive impact on weight control.