Added Sugars: Not So Sweet to Our Health

It can be really challenging and confusing when trying to reduce sugar in your diet since most food labels don't distinguish between naturally occurring and added sugars.

Naturally occurring sugars are those found naturally in foods such as fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose).

Added sugars are those sugars or caloric sweeteners that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation (such as putting sugar in your coffee or adding sugar to your cereal). Added sugars can include natural sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar and honey as well as other caloric sweeteners that are chemically manufactured (such as high fructose corn syrup). The major sources of added sugars are the usual culprits of candy, cakes, pies, cookies, and regular soft drinks.

You really have to be a bit of a food label detective to try to figure out if there is added sugar in a product since food manufacturers aren't require to list how much sugar is added versus naturally in the product. Keep in mind that any food that has fruit or milk in it will contain some natural sugars.

One trick is to look at the list of ingredients which are listed in descending order according to weight. For example, if sugar is listed as the second ingredient on a box of cereal, you might want to rethink your choice.

It can also be tricky since manufacturers use different names for sugar. Here are a few of the names for added sugar that show up on food labels

Agave nectar
Brown rice syrup
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
Maltose
Malt syrup
Molasses
Raw sugar
Sucrose
Sugar
Syrup


The American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than 100 calories per day (about 6 teaspoons or 24 grams of sugar) and men consume no more than 150 calories per day (about 9 teaspoons or 36 grams of sugar).

Here are some tips from the American Heart Association for reducing sugar in your diet:

• Take sugar (white and brown), syrup, honey and molasses off the table — out of sight, out of mind!
• Cut back on the amount of sugar added to things you eat or drink regularly like cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of sugar you add by half and wean down from there, or consider using an artificial sweetener.
• Buy sugar-free or low-calorie beverages.
• Buy fresh fruits or fruits canned in water or natural juice. Avoid fruit canned in syrup, especially heavy syrup.
• Instead of adding sugar to cereal or oatmeal, add fresh fruit (try bananas, cherries or strawberries) or dried fruit (raisins, cranberries or apricots).
• When baking cookies, brownies or cakes, cut the sugar called for in your recipe by one-third to one-half. Often you won’t notice the difference.
• Instead of adding sugar in recipes, use extracts such as almond, vanilla, orange or lemon.
• Enhance foods with spices instead of sugar; try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg.
• Substitute unsweetened applesauce for sugar in recipes (use equal amounts).
• Try non-nutritive sweeteners such as stevia or sucralose - but in moderation.