Dr. Atkins wrote we should avoid aspartame whenever possible. It stalls many of folks and may cause cravings. Others are okay with it though. I'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners in general, so I rarely use any... but aspartame stalls me.
Swede is called rutabaga in the US.
[And between the two of us, I actually know it is not allowed until Rung 8 because I once gave a wrong advice about it to someone on the board (I thought it falls into the same category as turnips)... and another moderator (liv) corrected me.] 