By Edvard Pettersson, Michelle Cortez and Shruti Singh, BloombergBusiness

Big Sugar and Big Syrup are heading for a showdown.

After years of bickering, U.S. sugar companies and their rivals, the makers of high-fructose corn syrup, are going to trial over what exactly constitutes a “natural” sweetener.

Big Sugar argues high-fructose corn syrup doesn’t qualify. Big Syrup, predictably, disagrees.

Billions of dollars are at stake. But this legal dispute masks a bitter reality for both sides: Americans are consuming less sugar and corn syrup than they used to. Nutritionists agree with what parents have been telling kids for a long time: too many sweets are bad for you.

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