Hidden Sugar: A List of Over 50 Names for the Sneaky Diet Foe

Written by Julie Paiva

 

While many of us immediately associate sugar with foods like candy and soda, sugar is hidden in many things you might be surprised to find it in. Most jarred spaghetti sauces and peanut butters, for example, contain sugar in their ingredients.   Unfortunately, now-a-days sugar is added into almost everything that is processed.  Added Sugar (including High-Fructose Corn Syrup), has been linked to America’s obesity epidemic as well as a host of other chronic diseases.

 

This added sugar isn’t as easy to spot as just looking for sugar on the list of ingredients on a packages nutrition label.  Sugar comes in many different forms. There are some 257 names for sugar that could be listed on food labels.  No matter which name or form of sugar is added in, they all act the same in the body and cause excess weight gain and harm to our health. Below is a list of the most common names for sugar.

 

When you look for sugar on a nutrition label it is usually listed in grams.  It may be hard for most of us to gage what those grams of sugar are equal to.  You can remember that 4 grams of sugar is equal to 1 tablespoon.  That may help you realize just how much sugar is lurking in some products you commonly use.

 

Most common names for added sugar:

Sugars with glucose and fructose:

  1. Sugar/ sucrose
  2. High-fructose corn syrup
  3. Agave nectar
  4. Beet sugar
  5. Blackstrap molasses
  6. Brown sugar
  7. Buttered syrup
  8. Cane juice crystals
  9. Cane sugar
  10. Caramel
  11. Carob syrup
  12. Castor sugar
  13. Coconut sugar
  14. Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
  15. Date sugar
  16. Demerara sugar
  17. Evaporated cane juice
  18. Florida crystals
  19. Fruit juice
  20. Fruit juice concentrate
  21. Golden sugar
  22. Golden syrup
  23. Grape sugar
  24. Honey
  25. Icing sugar
  26. Invert sugar
  27. Maple syrup
  28. Molasses
  29. Muscovado sugar
  30. Panela sugar
  31. Raw sugar
  32. Refiner’s syrup
  33. Sorghum syrup
  34. Sucanat
  35. Treacle sugar
  36. Turbinado sugar
  37. Yellow sugar

Sugars with glucose only:

  1. Barley malt
  2. Brown rice syrup
  3. Corn syrup
  4. Corn syrup solids
  5. Dextrin
  6. Dextrose
  7. Diastatic malt
  8. Ethyl maltol
  9. Glucose
  10. Glucose solids
  11. Lactose
  12. Malt syrup
  13. Maltodextrin
  14. Maltose
  15. Rice syrup

Sugars with fructose only:

  1. Crystalline fructose
  2. Fructose

If you want to learn more about the dangers of added sugar.  Check out the documentary The Secrets of Sugar,  https://youtu.be/xDaYa0AB8TQ.  Here is also an article from Harvard Medical School about the dangers of sugar in our diet, www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar.

Julie Paiva
Julie Paiva
Julie is a nutritional counselor with a degree in Holistic Health Coaching from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She also has a Bachelor’s Degree from Central Connecticut State University in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Science from Southern Connecticut State University. She has been giving one-on-one coaching sessions ever since earning her degree in 2013 and is passionate about helping others implement a holistic lifestyle!

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