33 Sneaky names for refined sugar in processed food and drinks

In America, people are eating and drinking an average of 22 teaspoons of sugar a
day, that’s 2-3 times more than the recommended 6 teaspoons for women and 9
teaspoon for men. In the UK we are consuming 2.25 million tonnes of the stuff
per year! We all know that sweets and fizzy drinks are full of sugar but a huge
part of our sugar intake comes from unexpected more savoury foods like soup,
ketchup, salad dressings, cereal and diet foods. Apart from being bad for our
teeth there are some very serious and shocking side effects of sugar. The main
ones being obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney stones and
depression. Sugar is also highly addictive, it releases a substance which
activates the part of the brain that recognises pleasure, influencing your body
to crave it like it craves pleasure. Worldwide people consume an extra 500
calories a day on average from added sugar but it isn’t just from sugar cane,
there are over 200 types of added sugars in processed food and drinks with the
most common being corn syrup, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup and fruit
juice concentrate. Manufacturers have become rather sneaky about how they
describe the different sugars they put into their produce, hoping to confuse
people and therefore keep them buying their food and drinks, even if they are
actively trying to cut their sugar intake. Here are 33 sneaky names for added
sugar which you should try to avoid.

1 Sugar
2 Agave
3 Beet sugar
4 Blackstrap molasses
5 Brown rice syrup
6 Caramel
7 Grape sugar
8 Palm sugar
9 Coconut palm sugar
10 Corn syrup
11 Diatase
12 Date sugar
13 Dextrin
14 Dextrose
15 Diastic malt
16 Evaporated cane juice
17 Fructose
18 Fruit sugar
19 Galactose
20 Glucomalt
21 Grape juice concentrate
22 Honey
23 Lactose
24 Maltose
25 Maltodextrin
26 Refiner’s syrup
27 Saccharose
28 Sorghum syrup
29 Treacle
30 Hsucrose
31 Turbinado sugar
32 Invert sugar
33 Xylose

Hidden sugars are normally found
in breakfast cereals, fruit yoghurts, low-fat diet foods and ready-made sauces
and meals and so it can be hard to keep an eye on your intake. The best thing
to do is to cook from scratch as much as you can, this will help you keep track
of exactly how many grams of sugar you are eating as well as your salt and fat
intake too. Not surprisingly a quarter of the added sugar in our diets comes
from fizzy drinks, tea and coffees and fruit juices. Try switching your usual
fizzy drinks which can contain the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar with
soda water and squeeze of lemon or lime. If you take sugar in your hot
beverages then try slowly putting less and less sugar each time you make a
drink to ween yourself off it. You will eventually find that you won’t miss it
at all. Lastly, don’t drink all your fruit. When fruit is juiced it releases
sugar and loses fibre but it does contain vitamins and minerals so it isn’t all
bad. You will find eating fruit is far more filling than drinking it because of
the fibre too. Added sugar is having a huge impact on our health I urge you to
read the labels on your food carefully to make sure you know what you are
putting in your body before eating it.