8 Ways To Spot Added Sugar
If you’ve stuck with us here at Bestie for a while, you’re probably familiar with some
of the videos we’ve already put out on the dangers of eating too much sugar.
If you’re new here and haven’t seen our past videos, we encourage you to check out
our health and nutrition playlist to get a better idea of what we’re talking about.
To make a long story short, having too much sugar in your diet can lead to unwanted weight
gain as well as increase the risk of other undesirable and dangerous medical conditions
such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.
But sometimes staying away from the obvious sugary foods isn’t enough.
In these cases, you need to make yourself aware of the ways in which food companies
sometimes hide the sugar content of their foods from consumers.
Before we start, it would be awfully “sweet” of you to subscribe to Bestie if you haven’t
already, and ring the notification bell to stay up to date on all of our latest videos
and content.
Today, Bestie’s going to tell you 8 ways to spot the telltale signs of hidden added
sugars in food.
Watch Out For Sugar’s Many Names To paraphrase Shakespeare, would sugar by
any other name still taste as sweet?
Well as it turns out, the answer is yes, and it’s also equally unhealthy regardless of
what you call it.
According to Helen West of Healthline, while “sugar” is the general name applied to
the short-chain carbs that sweeten the taste of our food, sugar can show up in your food
under a variety of different names.
Some of these names, such as glucose, fructose and sucrose, are more commonly recognized.
However, a few of sugar’s alternate names are a little more obscure and worth watching
out for if you’re making a conscious effort to cut sugar from your diet.
For added amounts of dry sugar, you can expect sugar to be disguised under names and phrases
such as barley malt, corn sweetener, ethyl maltol, maltose, and maltodextrin, among several
others.
In other cases, sugar can be added to food in the form of syrups, such as agave nectar,
malt syrup, molasses, rice bran syrup, and carob syrup.
If you’re trying to reduce your sugar intake and come across an ingredient name you don’t
recognize while shopping, be sure to look it up.
Better safe than sorry, right?
2.
Look Out For the Many Types of Sugar
In addition to having many names, sugar can take on many different forms as well.
It’s worth mentioning that the ingredients listed on a food’s packaging are listed
by weight, with the most abundant ingredients appearing first on the list.
To take advantage of this, food manufacturers will often try to make their products appear
healthier by using multiple types of sugar in smaller quantities, rather than having
all of the food’s added sugar come from a single source.
Because these individual sugar ingredients are added in small quantities, they appear
further down on the list, making it appear as though the product is low in sugar when
this isn’t really the case.
When reading the ingredients on food packaging, make sure you can identify multiple kinds
of sugar to avoid falling for this easy deception.
3.
Expect Added Sugar In Unexpected Places
Sometimes, sugar is just like your ex: always showing up at the most inconvenient times
and in the most unexpected places.
While plenty of junk foods are obvious sources of sugar, sugar might also be added to other
foods which you might not associate with being especially sweet, such as breakfast cereals,
yogurt, and even spaghetti sauce!
Even seemingly “healthy” foods, such as a whole-grain breakfast bar, can contain 16
grams of sugar in a single serving.
That’s 4 teaspoons of sugar in one bar!
If cutting sugar out of your meal plan is important to you, make sure to always check
the label, even for things you normally wouldn’t expect to contain a lot of added sugar.
4.
Be Wary of “Healthy” Sugars
In order to make their products seem healthier and more appealing, food companies may sometimes
swap out regular sugar for an alternative sweetener instead.
According to Healthline, these alternative sweetening options are often unrefined and
are made from the sap, fruit, flowers or seeds of plants, with one example being agave nectar.
While products that use these alternative sweeteners can proudly declare that they are
“contain no refined sugar”, all this really means is that the food doesn’t contain any
white sugar specifically.
On one hand, these sweeteners usually have a slightly lower glycemic index than refined
white sugar, but even so, they still contain very little nutritional value and still equate
to mostly empty calories.
Be on the lookout for sweeteners such as agave syrup, birch syrup, maple syrup, raw sugar,
cane sugar, and sugar beet syrup.
Even unrefined added sugar is still added sugar, and you should try to limit your intake
if you’re trying to eat healthily.
5.
Look Out For Combined Sugars
Some foods, such as fruits, vegetables and dairy, contain natural sugars that usually
don’t present the same health concerns that added sugars do.
One of the main reasons for this is because natural sugars are typically harder to eat
in larger amounts than refined or added sugars, and the fiber and antioxidants present in
things such as fruit usually serve as a counterweight to their natural sugar content.
However, some food labels have a tendency to list natural and added sugars in a single
amount, blurring the lines and making it harder to determine how much sugar was already there
versus how much of it is added sugar.
One easy way to avoid this is by sticking to whole, unprocessed foods, which can help
you make sure that the only sugars you’re ingesting are natural ones.
6.
Be Skeptical of Health Claims
Food manufacturers know that there’s a high demand for food with supposed health benefits.
With this in mind, they’ll often slap whatever health claims and related buzzwords they can
find that are applicable to the product, such as “diet”, “natural”, “low-fat”
and “light”.
While these products may be low in fat and calories, there’s still a strong chance
that they might contain a heaping helping of added sugar as well.
Like we keep saying, read the label of the food you buy and don’t be suckered by healthy-sounding
platitudes and buzzwords.
7.
Question the Portion Sizes
Sometimes, manufacturers in the food industry make the suggested serving size of their products
deceptively small, in order to mask the amount of sugar their product actually contains.
While an individual serving may be low according to the “suggested” size, these smaller
portions will make you feel more inclined to eat multiple servings in a single meal
or sitting, meaning that there’s a chance you’re getting two or even three times as
much sugar as what’s printed in the nutritional information section.
Make sure to pay close attention to the serving size and compare it to the total size of the
product you’re buying to get a better idea of how much sugar it actually contains as
a whole.
8.
Don’t Put Blind Faith in Low Sugar Brands
Many brands of food are considered to be low in added sugars.
However, according to Healthline, food manufacturers might sometimes use this as an opportunity
to “piggyback” on an established brand by replacing a new version of the product
that comes loaded with extra sugar.
Since people are used to the old version, they probably won’t bother to check the
sugar content of the new version.
Breakfast cereals are especially notorious for using this strategy to sneak extra sugar
past loyal buyers.
To put it simply, don’t put blind faith into an established brand or make the assumption
that they have your best interest in mind.
Always ask questions and investigate, and if a popular food brand you buy suddenly changes
their packaging, that’s probably a sign that the ingredients have changed, as well.
When trying to establish a healthier meal plan, cutting out added sugars can be surprisingly
more difficult than it sounds.
Processed foods can contain sugar in a variety of ways, and manufacturers often try to disguise
the sugar content of their products in order to make people feel more inclined to buy them.
By being a smarter shopper, you can still manage to avoid unnecessary added sugars and
start taking steps towards establishing a healthier and happier lifestyle.
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