Where Sugar Hides
Refined sugars now contaminate almost all foodstuffs; hidden in packet sauces, soft drinks, supposedly ‘healthy’ fruit juices, and cereals and of course any non or low fat products. For many of us this comes as a surprise, having been mislead by strategic marketing teams for so long. For example, you may be surprised to know that an “All Natural Fruit Juice” contains the same amount of sugar as Coca-Cola – that’s about 9 teaspoons.
Unfortunately the food industry has become better at hiding sugar in these ‘healthy’ foods, using a myriad of different names to mask what has been coined as ‘the white poison’.
When reading food labels we must now not only look out for ‘Sugar’ but other names as well: (Hilmantel 2014).
56 Different Names for Sugar
| Agave Nectar | Barley Malt | Blackstrap Molasses | Buttered Syrup |
| Cane Sugar | Carob Syrup | Confectioner’s Sugar | Dextran |
| Date Sugar | Ethyl Maltol | Diastatic Malt | Fruit Juice |
| Florida Crystals | Glucose Solids | Galactose | High-Fructose Corn Syrup |
| Golden Syrup | Lactose | Icing sugar | Maple Syrup |
| Maltodextrin | Panocha | Muscovado | Sorghum Syrup |
| Refiner’s Syrup | Turbinado Sugar | Barbados Sugar | Beet Sugar |
| Brown Sugar | Cane Juice Crystals | Caramel | Castor Sugar |
| Corn Syrup | Crystalline Fructose | Demerara Sugar | Dextrose |
| Diatase | Evaporated Cane Juice | Fructose | Fruit Juice Concentrate |
| Glucose | Golden Sugar | Grape Sugar | Honey |
| Invert Sugar | Malt Syrup | Maltose | Molasses |
| Organic Raw Sugar | Raw Sugar | Rice Syrup | Sucrose |
| Treacle | Yellow Sugar |
Sugar is hidden everywhere and while it is almost impossible to avoid it completely, be aware that whenever a food company uses a term that may sound healthier the likelihood of that being true is very slight.
So keep your wits about you, understand where and under what name is sugar is hiding and make the best choice for you and your family in that moment – and that might just mean turning a blind eye to this year’s birthday cake.
