I learned this from my doctor (who is a diabetic specialist), some years ago we were talking about how to form good habits for kids and my wife and I were avoiding caffeine beverages for the kids, but letting them have apple juice etc. His opinion based on the evidence is that he would much rather have our kids drink caffeine every day but stay away from the sugar. His specific point was that people on the internet point to unknown risks with aspartame or caffeine, but ignore the mountain of known risks associated with sugar.

It was an eye opening discussion to say the least.