To pop or not to pop. Well, make that pop lite.

This was the focus of a recent study by scientists with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a part of the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institutes of Health. They examined diet sodas containing aspartame to see if they pose an increased risk for cancer.

Aspartame — which comes in brand names like Equal or NutraSweet — has been implicated in increasing the risk of brain cancer and other blood-associated cancers. Conflicting studies and reports have not been conclusive.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved aspartame in 1981. The aspartame.org Web site reports that the artificial sweetener is now used in more than 6,000 products and consumed by more than 200 million people around the world.

In the recent federally funded study, NCI researchers looked at aspartame consumption in 567,000 people between the ages of 50 and 69.

The results of the study were recently presented at the 97th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.

The researchers mailed questionnaires to participants, asking the individuals about the number of diet drinks made with Equal or NutraSweet that they consumed over the course of one year. They were also asked about the amount of coffee and tea sweetened with aspartame that they drank during that time.

After five years, a follow-up was performed on the participants to check the number of incidences of cancer.

The scientists said they found no link between aspartame consumption and leukemias, lymphomas and brain tumors.