8 Methods Companies Use To Hide Sugar In Foods
It’s
no secret that eating too much added sugar can harm your health in a
variety of ways, with excess sugar consumption being linked to a variety
of conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But even if you
use little to no added sugar in your cooking, you might be consuming way
more of it than the recommended daily amount. How is that possible? One
major reason why that might be happening is that companies add a lot of
sugar to their products, but they try to conceal it in a variety of
ways to be able to pass them off as healthy foods.
And while the maximum daily amount of added sugar for men should be no more than 37.5 grams (9 teaspoons) and for women it should not exceed 25 grams
(6 teaspoons), 1 protein bar can contain as much as 30 grams (7.5
teaspoons) of added sugars, which is over the daily recommended
allowance for women. Let’s investigate how it is possible for companies
to sell you junk food under the premise of healthy food, and how you can
use food labels to make smart purchasing decisions that would promote
and not harm your health.
1. They Use a Different Word For Sugar
When you want to find out how much sugar a product contains, let’s say, a box of cereal, you usually look at the back of a cereal box and scan the ingredients list for key words like sugar, sucrose, glucose, and fructose.
If you don’t find those, or find them in the middle or at the end of
the ingredients list, which means that there isn’t a lot of it in the
product, you make the conclusion that it’s a healthy choice, right?
Well,
not entirely, as many companies nowadays use many “alternative” names
for sugar in an attempt to deceive a consumer that is used to scan the
ingredients list before purchasing a certain product. Here is a list of
such alternative names that you should watch out for when it comes to
powdered added sugar.
Added
sugar is also often used in syrup form rather than powdered form, in
which case they commonly appear as the following ingredients on
nutrition labels.
2. Adding Sugar to Things That Aren’t Sweet
You
would expect to see added sugar appearing as an ingredient on a box of
cookies, but not so much on a can of tomato sauce, salad dressings and
soups. The truth is that humans simply love sweet food because our
brains run on sugar and it’s addictive, and for companies, it’s a cheap
way of making a product tastier for consumers.
Unfortunately,
all of the foods we mentioned above can actually contain a lot of
sugar, which add up and can be the culprit behind excess sugar
consumption. For example, 100 grams of some ketchup can contain as much
as 38 grams of sugar, which is higher than the daily allowance for men.
That’s why it is always important to always check the sugar content of a
product, be it sweet or savory.
3. Adding Health-Related Claims on Product Packaging
You’re better off completely ignoring claims like natural, zero, healthy, low-fat, diet, and light
that often appear on the packaging of products. Instead, look directly
at the label and analyze the ingredient list. These products are often
lower in fat, calories, and sugar, but they’re often way too abundant in
sugars.
4. Using So-Called “Healthy” Sugars
Certain products use labels like refined sugar-free or contains no refined sugar.
What these labels mean, however, is that a product doesn't contain
white sugar. While it may be true that these so-called “healthy” sugars
have a slightly lower glycemic index (GI), they still have little to no
additional nutrients compared to whole foods and, at the end of the day,
they are still added sugars. A list of popular sugars marketed as
healthier can be found in the picture below.
The
bottom line is that like white sugar, fructose or corn syrup, these
sugars should not exceed the overall amount of 37.5 g for men and 25 g
for women. So, it doesn’t matter if you consume 25 g of white sugar, or
10 g of coconut sugar, 10 g of agave syrup and 5 g of honey as a woman,
both equal your daily recommended amount. That doesn’t mean that you
cannot choose these alternatives, but remember that they are just as
damaging to your health as any other sugar.
5. Using a Few Types of Sugar
As
we mentioned previously, ingredients appear in any ingredients list
according to their amounts in a product, so the first ingredient is
usually the most abundant one, whereas there will be very little of the
last ingredient on the list. Companies learnt to take advantage of this
regulation and often uses several types of sugar in smaller amounts,
which makes them appear lower on the ingredients list.
This
can trick a consumer into believing that there is very little sugar in
the product. So, if you see a few different types of sugar in the middle
or at the end of the list, know that the added amount of all these
sugars may be way higher than you expect. For example, if you look at
the picture below, you will see that this cereal uses a variety of
sweeteners, such as sugar, honey, and brown sugar syrup that appear in
different places on the list.
6. Not Distinguishing Between Naturally-Occurring and Added Sugars
There
is a difference between eating an orange and drinking a glass of soda,
even if both of these products contain a lot of sugar. While products
containing added sugars, like a glass of soda, do not contain anything
apart from whatever is listed on the packaging, whole foods are packed
full with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants and essential nutrients that not
only mitigate the damage caused by the sugar they contain, but improve
your health.
Ingredient labels don’t distinguish
between the added and naturally-occurring sugars, but you should keep
in mind that choosing whole, unprocessed foods is always better.
7. Changing the Nutritional Facts With Time
If you know that a specific brand makes a great low-sugar product, don’t assume it applies to comparable products by the same brand. It is often the case that a similar product, but with a different flavor or simply one that is sold in a different country will not have the same nutritional content the original did.
It
is also often the case that brands change the content of their products
when they update the packaging, so always be critical of any changes or
variations in the product you know is good, as it may actually turn out
to be not so low in sugar.