High-Fructose Corn Syrup: The Next 'Trans Fat'?

In a move that several consumer groups are watching, a Seattle-based grocery chain has decided to ban selling products that include high-fructose corn syrup, a popular industrial sugar substitute.

Seattle-based PCC Natural Markets is not the first chain to ban these types of products, as North Carolina-based Earth Fare did the same in 2004. But PCC is the first sizeable chain since that time to take this step, and with the rise in popularity of organic and healthy foods, this practice has the potential to become a trend.

High-fructose corn syrup is thought by some to be contributing to the nation’s obesity epidemic. Industry analysts say that the artificial sweetener could become the next “trans-fat,” a by product quickly being phased out (and outlawed) in several parts of the country.

-- Dylan Blaylock