Learn to recognize different names for sugar on ingredient lists to avoid excess added sugar consumption.
Many healthy foods and beverages contain natural sugars. Fruits contain the sugar fructose and milk contains the sugar lactose. Carbohydrates like potatoes and pasta break down to their sugar components during digestion to provide our bodies with energy. However, the majority of sugars consumed by Americans are added sugars: those sugars added by food processing, during food preparation, or right before we eat. (1)
Added sugar consumption by the average American has declined since it peaked in 2003-2004 (2), but is still above the recommended amounts. Currently, 270 calories of added sugars are consumed by the average American each day, representing more than 13 percent of total daily calorie intake. (3) Children consume even more added sugar than adults. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that added sugars be limited to less than 10 percent of the calories consumed per day.
Learn to recognize different names for sugar on ingredient lists.
Food ingredient labels can have at least 61 different names for sugar! (4) See a list of 61+ names for sugar at the end of this post.
A single ingredient list can contain multiple sugars such as dextrose, sucrose, fructose, lactose, maltose, trehalose (any word ending with “ose”), molasses, corn syrup, maltodextrin, dextran, panocha, diastatic malt, treacle, fruit juice concentrate, evaporated cane juice, Florida crystals, ethyl maltol, diatase, and barley malt.
Added sugars can be "hidden" in foods you believe to be healthy.
The Quaker Corporation proudly announces this product does not contain high-fructose corn syrup, but the ingredient list reveals no less than 10 different added sugars, with brown sugar as the second largest component (by weight) of the granola!
61+ Names For Sugar
Agave nectar
Barbados sugar
Barley malt
Barley malt syrup
Beet sugar
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane juice
Cane juice crystals
Cane sugar
Caramel
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Coconut palm sugar
Coconut sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Date sugar
Dehydrated cane juice
Demerara sugar
Dextran
Dextrin
Dextrose
Diastatic malt
Diastase
Ethyl maltol
Evaporated cane juice
Free-flowing brown sugars
Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup)
HoneyIcing sugar
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt syrup
Malted barley extract
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Maltose
Mannose
Maple syrup
Molasses
Muscovado
Oligo fructose
Palm sugar
Panocha
Polydextrose
Powdered sugar
Raw sugar
Refiner’s syrup
Rice syrup
Saccharose
Sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Sugar (granulated)
Sweet sorghum
Syrup
Treacle
Trehalose
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar
References:
1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, 7th Edition, p. 27, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, December 2010. Available at http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/DietaryGuidelines2010.pdf
2. Powell, E, L. Smith, & B. Popkin. (2014, November 4). Recent Trends in Added Sugar Intake among U.S. Children and Adults from 1977 to 2010. Oral presentation at Obesity Week 2014, the second annual combined meeting of The Obesity Society and the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, Boston, MA.
Abstract retrieved from http://2014.obesityweek.com/wp/uploads/2014/10/Tuesday-tos-oral.pdf (July 19, 2016)
3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 8th Edition, p. 54. December 2015. Available at http://health.gov/dieteryguidelines/2015/guidelines/
4. http://www.sugarscience.org/hidden-in-plain-sight/#.V4-o-PmAOko (Feb 7, 2019)