According to the well-informed Accidental Hedonist, who seems to have quite the high-fructose chip on her shoulder, HFCS is a substance that, between 1970 and 1990, we’ve increased our consumption of by 1,000 percent. Because it fails to stimulate the release of leptin, an appetite-regulating hormone, we reach for more soda, or so critics of the sweetener claim. Then we find ourselves surprised to inhabit a nation approximately 1,000 percent fatter.

Anyway, back to Seattle. PCC Natural Markets, according to the Post-Intelligencer, is apparently the second significant organization nationally to ban HFCS, and if anyone knows who was the first I’d appreciate an email about it (the article doesn’t specify). Another Seattle co-op, Madison Market, has an HFCS-free deli and may go wholesale. “The moves by smaller retailers inevitably influence the larger marketplace,” said Bob Vosburgh, of Supermarket News, hinting at a ripple effect I’ll be anxious to see.

The HFCS ban has been critically compared to the 1990s fad for fat-free foods that were nevertheless packed with calories. “[The] fat-free labels gave consumers a false sense that they could overindulge without harm.” Moreover, Marion Nestle, who knows everything about everything, calls the ban “silly,” because she believes that HFCS is no better or worse than regular sugar, and that our obesity problem should be blamed on the masses of sugar we eat rather than the type. Hmm.

I usually trust Nestle’s good judgment, but I’d still pick cane sugar over HFCS. For one, HFCS is much more highly processed than sugar, containing three separate enzymes (two of which are genetically modified, not to mention the corn) added at three different points of the very long make process. Secondly, our high use of HFCS as a sweetener is yet another reason to keep corn subsidies—and our consequent national dependence on corn—flowing. A 1/10 of a cent increase in sweetener per serving, Kate Hopkins calculates, would cost Coca-Cola $122,423,790 per year. Imagine that.

I understand that PCC Natural Markets doesn’t serve every market, but I applaud their gutsy move. Maybe someday, as Vosburgh suggests, we’ll see a trickle-down effect: Stop & Shop installing HFCS-free aisles, Winn-Dixie touting their private-label sugar-sweetened cola…a girl can dream…

* Rightfully so if reasonably done.