Campbell's announced this week that regardless of what dietitians and health management experts are telling us, Americans want their salt.

As a result they will be adding salt back into their Select Harvest soups.

The Salt Institute is very pleased, while lobby groups have accused the soup giant of sacrificing consumer health for profits. But the truth is that the less-salty soups weren't selling, mostly because people just don't like the way they taste.

Sodium reduction has become a big issue this year. Medical and scientific studies have linked high sodium intake to increased incidences of heart attack and stroke. At the same time salt - one of the basic human tastes - is one of the oldest and most popular food product chemicals, traditionally used for its preservative properties and it's flavor.

However, marketing foods as having less salt in them doesn't seem to be helping sales. In fact, according to food industry experts it could do just the opposite. Americans have been taught to like their food salty, and as a result don't buy foods that don't offer it.

Health industry experts argue that Campbell's should have kept working at it, searching for the perfect combination of salt replacers, herbs, and flavorings to bring in the buyers. This, however, is not a cheap avenue of exploration.

And while food manufacturing giants like Campbell's have taken a lot of criticism for their salty fare, smaller companies continue to offer foods loaded with sodium, fat and a host of "unhealthy" ingredients without garnering any attention.

Perhaps it's true that people should just learn to like their food with less salt in it, but to be fair, teaching us that lesson isn't really Campbell's job.

Sweeteners have been under a lot of fire in recent years. Whether it's "processed" sugar, artificial sweeteners, or high fructose corn syrup, the current popularity in "natural" or "no artificial" product claims is hurting the market for sugar substitutes.

The problem has escalated to the point that the corn industry has asked the FDA if they could switch the name of their product from high fructose corn syrup to "corn sugar," even though no studies have been able to prove that high fructose corn syrup is a so-called unhealthy product.

In fact, quite the contrary; recent studies have found that HFCS reacts in the body exactly like standard table sugar.

The sugar industry has responded by offering more "natural" sugars like turbinados and demerara, or with marketing designed to focus on the "natural" nature of standard sugar itself.

Unfortunately food manufacturers are only "shooting themselves in the foot," according to Hans Heezen, the chairman of the International Sweetener Association. Food industry news reports reveal that by reformulating popular products to remove artificial sweeteners, food manufacturers are heightening an unfounded fear of such products.

It's a Catch 22 - you can focus on "natural" marketing and thereby cash-in on a new and growing food trend, but you're likely going to see higher food costs and lower sales of products featuring other sweeteners.

Heezen went on to argue that artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame are also a valuable weapon in the fight against obesity.

Standard sugar tastes good but it isn't calorie free, and "natural" isn't always "healthy," a fact that many consumers have forgotten in the current craze for all natural products.

Food manufacturers are continuing to remove the sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from their products, based on the current unpopularity of HFCS with consumers.

HFCS has become the latest boogeyman in the fight against obesity. It's blamed for everything from diabetes, to migraine headaches, to the rise in overweight Americans.

However, according to scientific data high fructose corn syrup reacts within the human body exactly like standard table sugar. As a result food manufacturers may be falsely perpetuating the misconception that this sweetener is unhealthy.

This same practice may also cause problems down the line. First and foremost, one of the main benefits of using high fructose corn syrup is that it's much cheaper than table sugar. While the sugar industry is very much enjoying the current trend away from the corn-based sweetener, many food manufacturers are struggling to absorb the cost.

And when it comes to keeping manufactured foods safe from spoilage, high fructose corn syrup is significantly less likely to become home to microorganisms. The monosaccharides in corn sweetener make it inhospitable to these microbes.

Unfortunately, while the scientific argument regarding high fructose corn syrup is over, this sweetener still has a long way to go before it can recover in the eyes of the public.

It's been accused of causing everything from obesity to headaches to disease, but according to a new study on high fructose corn syrup, it does none of these things.

The campaign to smear high fructose corn syrup has been going on for a few years. As a result "natural" sugar is back in, and corn refineries have even asked the FDA to allow them to rename the unpopular sweetener "corn sugar."

A lawsuit is pending, based mostly on the sugar industry's displeasure with the term.

But according to Dr. James Rippe, Professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Central Florida, this demonized sweetener is innocent. His study, presented a the American Society of Hypertension Annual Meeting, has found that high fructose corn syrup reacts in the human body just like regular sugar.

And in a surprising turn, it appears that we aren't eating as much in the way of all sweeteners as we were ten years ago.

Rippe's research found that individuals who ate normal levels of HFCS were no more likely to be overweight or have higher triglycerides than those who consumed standard table sugar.

And while overall caloric consumption is up, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that Americans ate 10% fewer calories from all sweeteners in the last decade, including high fructose corn syrup.

Does this mean that high fructose corn syrup will finally shake its bad reputation?

It's not clear. Currently standard sugar is gaining more and more momentum as the sweetener of choice.

However, food manufacturers who do rely on HFCS can rest easy knowing that their products are actually as safe as those made with ordinary sugar.