How Much Sugar is Hiding in Your Diet?
Author: Oksana Aron, MD Source: Weight Loss NYC Apr 13, 2019
Food labels often don't tell the full story. Viewing the ingredient list can often give you more details than the numerical summaries indicate.
Many foods are marketing as having less sugar than they do by using other names for the sugars that are added. Dozens of terms including fruit juice concentrate, beet sugar, [barley] malt syrup, evaporated cane juice, corn sweeter (and many other corn syrups including the nefarious HFCS) are just some of the more innocent sounding names of added sugars.
Despite attempts back in 2016 to have FDA mandated labeling for added sugar, efforts have stalled:
“Currently, the official Nutrition Facts Label does not require disclosure of the amount of "added sugar" in a product. "Added sugar" is the amount of sugar in a food or beverage item beyond what naturally occurs in the item.” [1]
Ultimately the best plan is to seek and eat least-processed foods and prepare them with ingredients you fully know. Barring that, start to take note of the colorful names in your ingredient labels and start to educate yourself on what items are really in your foods and if they are counter-productive to your goal to lessen sugars in your diet.
As always, you can discuss your food concerns with Dr. Aron during any of your visits. She can help you make healthy food choices for your weight loss dieting needs.
Sources: [1] Forbes, Here is how sugar is hiding in your snacks