There are many of us who are starting out on our food awareness journey, and one of the main things we need to learn is that sugar has many different names and it’s hidden in so many of the foods we eat. In the movie That Sugar Film, it shows what happens when you remove all the products from the supermarket shelf that contain sugar – not much is left. It’s actually quite shocking. 80% of processed products are now estimated to contain sugar.
Sugar is one of the main culprits for obesity or should we say, the overconsumption of it is. More and more research is coming to light highlighting how the overconsumption of sugar is causing many illnesses and disease.
On average, each day, Australians eat 30-40 teaspoons of sugar a day. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) current guidelines recommend we have just 6! Do you know how many you are having?
So, how do we know how to find the many hiding places of sugar? We all expect sugar to be soft drinks, cakes, muffins, biscuits, lollies but do we really know just how many teaspoons of sugar they contain. And, where else is it included that we might not think about? I found this interesting article on Huffington Post and thought I’d share the secret hiding places to look out for.
Labels – learn to read them. We all know the difference between fashion labels, so why not food labels? You might be surprised by how much sugar is actually hidden in your favourite foods. Here’s our tips:
- check the ingredients – if sugar or one of the sugar names is in the first 3 ingredients listed, then pop the product back on the shelf
- count the number of sugars in the ingredients – if you find 3 or more sugar names in the ingredients listed, then pop the product back on the shelf
- calculate the number of teaspoons per 100g – look at the nutritional panel for the amount of sugar. 1 teaspoon is the equivalent of 4g, so divide the amount of sugar by 4 to work out the amount per 100g. Then check what the serving size is. Sometimes the serving size is more or less than the 100g, so you will need to adjust this. Either way, if it has more than 2 teaspoons of sugar, then it’s highly likely that when you add your other foods for the day, you are likely to exceed WHO recommendations.
Sugar Names – learn to recognise these when examining your food labels: Here are just a few, but it’s now estimated there are around 60 names of sugar.
- Brown Sugar
- Corn syrup
- Demerara Sugar
- Dextrose
- Free Flowing Brown Sugars
- Fructose
- Galactose
- Glucose
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Honey
- Invert Sugar
- Lactose
- Malt
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Maple syrup
- Molasses
- Muscovado or Barbados Sugar
- Panocha
- Powdered or confectioner’s sugar
- Rice Syrup
- Sucrose
- Sugar (granulated)
- Treacle
- Turbinado sugar
Sauces – whether it’s the sauce you have with your barbeque steak/snags, the cooking sauce your main meal is made of, or even a salad dressing, there is bound to be sugar hidden in it. While sauces may make our food seem more appealing, they can contain a lot of calories and sugars. It’s hard to estimate a sauce quantity when we are eating so therefore it’s hard to know exactly how much sugar we consume this way. Check your labels for the sugar quantity or perhaps forgo the sauce next time.
Dairy substitutes – people who are lactose intolerant will look for alternatives to substitute dairy but be wary as some of them are loaded with sugar eg soy, almond and coconut milk.
Bread – many breads, bagels and English muffins can contain a lot of sugar or corn syrup. Again, read the label to check the amounts.
Cereal – be certain to check your labels here as even so called ‘Healthy’ cereals can be hiding a lot of sugar.
Meat – yes, that’s right. Deli meats can be made with sugar and if you add sauce to them, well you’re getting a double hit of sugar.
Can/Box/Bag – whether it’s canned fruit or vegetables, frozen foods in a box or chips in a bag be sure to keep an eye out for any of the above hidden sugar names.
Drinks – soft drinks, fruit juice, water types, sport drinks, energy drinks all have varying amounts of sugar. Be sure to watch how many of these you are consuming. Also, think about whether you really need sugar added to your tea or coffee if you’re trying to watch your sugar intake.
Dried foods – these could be in the form of dried fruits, trail mixes or dried beef jerky and have some type of sugar in them.
So there you go, there are lots of places for sugar to hide in our foods. I guess the main thing I took from the article was to consistently check food labels if you want to cut back on your sugar intake.
If you are interested, here is a great blog by That Sugar Film about the differences between Added Sugar and Natural Sugar.