• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Tuesday, December 5, 2006 11:46 AM

Jones Soda Co., which manufactures Blue Bubble Gum and Twisted Lime sodas for Target and other retailers, says it will replace high-fructose corn syrup with cane sugar in its drinks starting in January. Jones also makes WhoopAss energy drink.

The company aims to capitalize on the bad publicity surrounding high-fructose corn syrup, which is used in popular brands like Coke and Pepsi. Some scientists have linked it to rising U.S. obesity rates. Unlike HFCS, cane sugar is a "natural ingredient" with a "positive perception in the consumer's mind," according to Peter van Stolk, Jones Soda's president and CEO. Drinks made with cane sugar also taste better than those made with HFCS, he contends.

However, some scientists say there is little difference between corn syrup and table sugar. Switching to sugar from HFCS "is going to have at best a trivial effect" on health, counters Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health in Chapel Hill and an author of a paper that proposed the link between obesity and HFCS.

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