Hidden sugar

By Tyler Johnson

Kansas State University Research and Extension

With the start of the new year, many people make resolutions to eat healthier. One way to eat healthier is to cut back on added sugar. Eating a lot of added sugar is bad for your health. At the same time, many people unknowingly eat more added sugar than they think. This is because the sugar is hidden inside pre-packaged and processed foods, even some that are marketed as healthy.

This contains sugar?

There are a number of products on the market that have sugar when you do not think they would. Some of the more common offenders are:

1. Sauces and dressings—Sauces and dressing are delicious and add a lot of flavor to any meal. If you are not careful the hidden sugar in your sauces and dressings will add a lot of sugar to your meals as well. Ketchup, BBQ sauce, and salad dressing are some of the most common, and least thought of, causes of added sugar. For example, 2 tablespoons of some “sweeter” dressings could have five to seven grams of sugar.

2. Drinks—By now, many people know to watch for high fructose corn syrup in their soda. Did you know HFCS is not the only sugar added to soda? If you are not a soda drinker, you need to watch for hidden sugars in flavored coffee drinks, bottle tea, energy drinks, and juices.

3. Breakfast Foods—Another source of added sugar many people do not think of is breakfast foods. Even the non-sugared kids’ cereals could be high in sugar with 10-20 grams per cup. Fruit flavored yogurts and instant oatmeal also have a significant amount of added sugar.

4. Snacks­—Snacks can be a healthy way to cut back on your sugar, but you have to be watchful. Granola bars, dried fruit, trail mix, and others can be loaded with sugar so choose wisely.

Part of why some of these products have more hidden sugar than you may think is the way they hide it. Sugar can come be on the label under many different names. A product might have more than one of these names listed on the nutrition label.

Different names of sugar

If you are trying to cut back on the amount of sugar you are eating, look at the ingredient label. Some key clues that it has added sugar are:

It contains syrup such as corn syrup, HFCS, rice syrup, or others.

The word ends in -ose, including fructose, sucrose, maltose, and others.

Sugar is in the name, like raw sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, and other.

Other examples include agave, molasses, honey, and fruit nectars or concentrated juices.