Consumers — at the grocery store and restaurants — are increasingly demanding sodas and other products sweetened with sugar, not corn syrup.

The trend is so strong that the Corn Refiners Association has launched a major marketing campaign and Internet site, www.sweetsurprise.com, to defend the sweetener.

High fructose corn syrup has become a favorite target of the health-conscious as an alleged cause of America’s obesity boom. A typical 2-liter bottle of soda, not the diet kind,  contains 15 ounces of corn syrup, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Whether it’s really at fault is open to debate.

The Corn Refiners Association contends that high fructose corn syrup is just as natural as table sugar and honey. Others say it’s not natural at all, because it is manufactured through a chemical process and does not occur in nature by itself.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest called the corn refiners’ campaign “deceptive.”

Most medical research says it is the calories, rather than the sweetener, that make a difference to a person’s health. And sugar and high fructose corn syrup have identical calorie counts.

“Our message is that people should cut down on both,” said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  Likewise, the American Dental Association says that sugar is bad for teeth regardless of whether it comes from corn or cane.

The Corn Refiners Association is reacting to a steady slide in sales of high fructose corn sweetener.

“We have been very concerned about the misunderstanding of our product in the marketplace and want to provide the facts so that consumers can make their choices based on science rather than urban myth. (High-fructose corn syrup) and sugar are treated by the body the same, they contain the same calories, and nutritionally are no different,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association.

Even so, so many consumers have become wary of corn sweeteners that smaller drink makers such as Hansen, Jones and Thomas Kemper have reformulated their sodas to use cane sugar.

Taco Bell and other fast-food chains have added sugar-sweetened beverages as alternatives to their corn sweetener-laden soft drink menu.

Meanwhile, U.S. sales of Coca-Cola Classic made with corn sweetener fell 5.5 percent last year, according to the Beverage Industry 2008 Soft Drink Report. Sprite dropped 9.2 percent, Pepsi-Cola was down 8.9 percent and Mountain Dew declined 3.1 percent.

The growing popularity of bottled water and other drinks is one reason for the decline of sweet carbonated drinks. But shoppers say that drinks made with sugar cane just taste better.

“It has a crisper flavor, not as cloying. I think it is a better-flavored drink,” said Charlie Howell, who periodically finds cane-sugar-sweetened Coca-Cola imported from Mexico at a Los Angeles Costco.

Hansen abandoned corn syrup last year, when a third of the calls to its customer service center were from consumers objecting to the sweetener, said Gregg Arends, vice president of marketing for Hansen Natural Corp. Natural foods retailers had complained about the same issue for years, and some threatened “to kick Hansen’s out,” Arends said.

It took the beverage company the better part of a year to make the switch because of the difficulty in reformulating the drinks to maintain the same flavor. It’s only been in the past few months that the cane sugar soda has been widely distributed.

The facts lead to calories

Most research about the nation’s collective fatness blames calorie intake and sloth, rather than any sweetener.

Some scientific research suggests adverse health effects from fructose, a type of sugar that makes up 55 percent of the sweetener in soft drinks with corn syrup. Although chemically different, cane sugar is half fructose.

Whether that extra shot of fructose is any worse than identically caloric soda pop made with cane sugar isn’t clear, said Dr. Peter Havel, a nutrition expert at the University of California, Davis, who is launching a National Institutes of Health study that will look at the effects of fructose.

Annual per-capita consumption of high fructose corn syrup in the United States peaked at 63.7 pounds in 1999. But it has dropped steadily since then and stood at 56.3 pounds in 2007, 12 percent off its peak. That’s the lowest consumption level since 1994.

Cane sugar consumption also has dropped during the period, by a smaller 6 percent, and now is at 62.1 pounds.

Beverage makers started the switch to high fructose corn syrup in the 1980s because it’s less expensive than sugar, decays less quickly and is easier to transport and mix into formulas. Even with the recent increase in corn prices, it is still less expensive to use corn syrup than sugar.

The big beverage makers probably won’t spend money on retooling to go back to sugar, said beverage consultant Tom Pirko.

Some shoppers say they don’t want to consume the sweetener but don’t have time to worry about it.

“I’m aware that edibles would be healthier — and probably taste more natural — without the addition of corn syrup or that high fructose junk,” said Michele Mooney of Los Angeles.

“But I don’t look for that ingredient when I purchase foods mostly because the labels are too long, the ingredients too numerous, the print too small and the chemicals too frightening.”