Natural Sugar Vs. High-Fructose Corn Syrup

The group, frustrated with continuing attacks on high-fructose corn syrup, launched a media and consumer campaign last summer to "change the conversation" about the product.

"This is not for science. This is not for consumer health," Erickson said of the food manufacturers' switch to sugar. "It is clearly about quarterly earnings in a tight economic environment."

Even the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a not-for-profit health advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said suggestions that high-fructose corn syrup is more harmful nutritionally than sugar is "one of those urban myths that sounds right, but is basically wrong," according to its Web site.

But the group takes issue with claims by the Corn Refiners Association that high-fructose corn syrup is natural. While corn is natural, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said, high-fructose corn syrup "does not occur in nature" and, because it is heavily processed, "should be considered an artificial ingredient."

The Food and Drug Administration does not define the term "natural," a word manufacturers have found useful in attracting health-conscious consumers. But the agency has said, in response to an industry-related inquiry, that high-fructose corn syrup is natural when produced through a particular process.

Ann Titus, an associate creative director at a Chicago advertising firm, said she has turned away from high-fructose corn syrup as she has tried to maintain a healthy diet, and one she believes is more natural. She even gave up one of her favorite drinks -- Snapple raspberry tea -- because it contained the sweetener.

"When I saw it was a main ingredient of raspberry Snapple, I stopped cold. Which was unfortunate, because I really loved raspberry Snapple," Titus said.

As it happens, Snapple has joined the manufacturers that have replaced high-fructose corn syrup with sugar, switching the ingredients in many of its drinks earlier this year. Now its raspberry tea is made with sugar.