Sugar is a great way to sabotage your efforts in weight control. It comes in so many forms that you probably wouldn’t recognize them all while reading the nutrition information on food labels. It is helpful to know what these hidden forms are. You should know what to look for if you’re watching your sugar content in foods. Consumer Reports (January 2004 issue) is on the web at www.ConsumerReports.org. They present the topic in a helpful way. “Sugars hide under many names on food labels.”
We should remember that some foods come naturally with sugar. Take milk, for instance. It contains the sugar lactose. Some people are intolerant of this. Fruits have fructose, which can cause bloating in some people.
The sweeteners we may be thinking about when we are watching our weight or health are often the ones added to processed food. We add our own sugar (such as with coffee) or it’s added during food processing. High-fructose corn syrup is an obvious one, added to soft drinks. But we wouldn’t expect that it’s also added to canned ravioli. Read your nutrition information though, and you’ll see it right on the label (Consumer Reports, January 2004).
It is also reported here that the World Health Organization recommends no more than ten percent of your daily calories coming from sugars that aren’t naturally a part of the food, as with milk or fruit. This translates to about 50 grams or 13 teaspoons for those on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. Americans typically eat twice that amount. Sugars on our food labels come it both kinds: the ones there naturally, and the added kinds.
So you try to limit the amount of sugar you consume by not adding too much to your food and drinks and by reading the nutrition information and the list of ingredients on your labels.
All Natural:
The problem is that you are probably getting more sugar than you realized, for example, in juices labeled “all fruit” or “no added sugars.” Concentrated apple juice and grape juice are very strong sweeteners that give you just as many calories as other sugars. Compare Sprite to a certain juice that is 100% apple juice. The apple juice has more calories (almost all of them coming from sugar) than the Sprite, so you must check the calories in your products. Remember that “all natural” can mean that the product is heavily sweetened with concentrated fruit-juice that was added (Consumer Reports).
These fruit juices might have some good nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but they are calorie dense and don’t have some of the benefits of whole fruit, like fiber, for instance. It is noted here in this article as well that The American Academy of Pediatrics warns of giving babies bottles or boxes of juice to sip from for hours. It could lead to tooth decay or weight gain. Older children and adults should choose whole fruit over juice. Look for these added sugars on your nutrition information labels: Corn syrup, Crystalline fructose, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit-juice concentrates, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, High-maltose corn syrup, Honey lactose, Invert sugar, Lactose, Malt, Maltose, Molasses, Sucrose and Syrup (Consumer Reports January 2004).
By Laura Hogg