When you’re shopping at the grocery store, you will likely find many foods nowadays labeled “natural,” “simply” or “honest” to capture your attention while speeding through the aisles.

These new labels are designed to appeal to growing consumer demand for simpler, easy-to-pronounce ingredients in the foods we choose for our families.

Yet high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been left out of the “natural” trend even though it’s still a natural ingredient, just like ordinary table sugar, says Ruth MacDonald, chair of Iowa State University’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

This summer, Iowa retailer Hy-Vee launched its “Clean Honest Ingredients” labeling initiative. Hy-Vee said the initiative will eliminate more than 200 artificial ingredients or synthetic chemicals in 1,000 Hy-Vee label products by...