I’ve been involved professionally in food and nutrition for most of my adult life. Recent reports that obesity and type 2 diabetes rates are rising—relentlessly—is not news to me. Nor is it news to anyone who can read.

Changing the name of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to "corn sugar" would confuse consumers and thwart food shoppers' attempts to avoid the man-made sweetener, says a study prepared for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Five more individual sugar companies and two trade associations have joined a lawsuit to stop the corn processors from marketing high-fructose corn syrup as a "natural" product equivalent to real sugar.