Added sugar-how to spot and avoid

Sugar is added to many types of foods, and eating too much of the sweet food—even when it seems to come from a natural source—is a risk for weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and even dementia. A diet heavy in added sugar is linked to a risk of dying from heart disease even if you’re not overweight.

Where is sugar hiding?

Added sugar is obviously in candy, cake, soda, and fruit drinks. But it’s also in foods that aren’t considered sweets, including salad dressings, crackers, yogurt, bread, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, and breakfast cereals.

You can find added sugar by looking at the ingredients in a product. Look for words ending in “ose,” such as fructose, dextrose, and maltose, and look for syrups and juices (see “The many names of added sugars”).

You won’t find added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label, since the listing for sugar includes both natural and added sugars. However, reading what is inside sis very helpful! You can see how many grams of sugar are in a product (preferably should be less than 5 grams per 100 grams, or, at least, not more than 15 grams per 100 grams).

Anytime when eating prepared foods, check the Nutrition Facts labels.
Be aware of different names of the added sugar on the ingredient list

agave nectar
brown sugar
cane crystals
cane sugar
corn sweetener
corn syrup
crystalline fructose
dextrose
evaporated cane juice
fructose
fruit juice concentrates
glucose high-fructose corn syrup
honey
invert sugar
lactose
malt sugar
malt syrup
maltose
maple syrup
molasses
raw sugar
sucrose

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