Most people don’t realize that there are different names for sugar. It comes in many forms besides the white granulated sugar that people often think of when it comes to sugar.
My mother called with a simple request. “Tell your father he’s eating too many baked beans. I told him they’re loaded with sugar but he won’t listen.”
Dad, a type 2 diabetic, unhappily gets on the phone. I ask him about the type of beans he’s eating. “They’re baked beans. I already looked at the label and it doesn’t say sugar so they’re ok.” I told him to read the label to me. “Small pea beans, water, molasses, salt, maple syrup, corn starch modified, spices, blah, blah, blah. See….no sugar.”
The only problem is there was plenty of added sugar. Sure it didn’t say sugar but molasses and maple syrup are both sugars. Combined they added 12 grams of sugar (carbs) to each 1/2 cup serving.
Also lets not forget that modified corn starch is a carbohydrate that is quickly broken down into sugar.
Plus the beans themselves contain carbohydrates that are broken down by the body into sugar.
My father was doing what we all have done at one time or another. When we think of sugar we think of the white stuff and forget there are many other types of sugars that show up on ingredients labels. Often, products we would never think have added sugar such as salad dressings or soup.
I thought I would post a list of the various names that might be appearing in the products you eat that are actually sugar.
Different Names For Sugar
Agave nectar
Barbados Sugar
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Blackstrap molasses
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Cane crystals
Cane juice crystals
Cane sugar
Caramel
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn syrup
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup solids
Crystalline fructose
Date sugar
Demerara Sugar
Dextrin
Dextran
Dextrose
Diastatic malt
Diatase D-mannose
Evaporated cane juice
Ethyl maltol
Florida Crystals
Free Flowing Fructose
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Galactose
Glucose
Glucose solids
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Granulated sugar
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
HFCS
High-fructose corn Syrup
Honey
Icing sugar
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt syrup
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Mannitol
Maple syrup
Molasses
Muscovado sugar
Organic raw sugar
Palm sugar
Powdered sugar
Raw sugar
Refiner’s syrup
Rice Syrup
Sorbitol
Sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Sugar Syrup
Table sugar
Treacle
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar
I’m sure there are some names I’ve missed.
If looking through the ingredients still leaves you wondering then just check the nutrition label to see how many total carbohydrates and how many grams of sugar the product contains.
Total carbohydrates includes not only sugar but also starch (which convert over to sugar) as well as fiber (which does not convert to sugar). The listing for how many grams of sugar is just for the various types of sugar that have been added such as the maple syrup and molasses in the baked beans.
If the food contains a certain number of grams of total carbohydrates but shows as 0 grams of sugar then the carbs all come from starch and fiber. There would be no added sugar. This does not mean however that the product won’t raise your blood sugar levels. Remember that carbs will be converted to sugar and that is what brings your blood sugar levels up.
Want to learn more about reading nutrition labels? This post here will explain how to read the nutrition labels present on the packaging of the food you are eating.
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