Why did the fda approve aspartame?

Why the fuss on aspartame? If it's toxic, why is approved by the Bureau of Food and Drugs itself in the first place?

Here's some info on the controversy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

At the bottom you'll see pro and con information - evidently the FDA is con.

The FDA relies a great deal on manufacturer funded studies before approving drugs or food additives.

Millions of people do enjoy asparatame products without any apparent problems. Is asparatame better or worse than sacharine? cyclamates? Splenda? high fructose corn syrup? Who knows!

In my opinion the safest non-caloric sweetener is a herbal one called Stevia. Stevia can't even be legally sold as a sweetener in the US because since no company can patent it nobody is willing to pay for testing to demonstrate to the FDA that it is safe. It is used as a sweetener elsewgere esp in Japan (In Japan it was even used in Diet Coke until Coke decided to standardize the recipie worldwide) and South America. To get Stevia in the US you usually have to go to the nutritional supliment asile. I use Stevia on my oatmeal in the morning; otherwise when I want something sweet I try to go for things that are naturally sweet like fruit and berries.