How do you avoid eating too much sugar? Well, the food manufacturing industry isn't making it easy for us. Now that there is a legal requirement to list ingredients in order of amount in the product (highest listed first), manufacturers are splitting the sugar content into different items, which however are all sugars. By listing these ingredients separately, we are less aware of the total sugars and also may not recognise some of the terms used, as they do not sound like sugars. And while fruit juices sound healthy, they are actually mostly sugars - it's far better to eat the raw fruit where the sugar content is lower and includes fibre. So here are some names to look out for - but beware, it's not a complete listing and manufacturers may come up with new ones.
Avoid the following sugars which are not recognised by the body's appetite control systems as they contain fructose. Fructose is not detected as a food, and our livers convert immediately to fat. It is present in fruit, which is why dietary advice is to include a maximum of two pieces of fruit out of the 5 to 7 vegetables and fruit daily intake.
Easily recognisable as sugar: brown sugar, cane sugar, coconut palm sugar, coconut sugar, confectioner's sugar, demerara sugar, golden sugar, grape sugar, invert sugar (and partially invert sugar), palm sugar, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, white sugar, yellow sugar
Syrups are forms of sugar: evaporated cane syrup, golden syrup, high fructose corn syrup, malt syrup, maple syrup, refiners's syrup, rice syrup, sorghum syrup
Hidden sugars: agave, concentrates (usually sugars), corn sweetener, crystalline fructose, dextran, diatase, diastatic malt, ethyl maltol, fructose, honey, mannitol, molasses, saccharose, sorbitol, sucrose, treacle, xlose.
The body uses glucose as energy. The end product of all carbohydrate digestion (except fructose, which the liver converts to fat) is glucose. So choose products which only include forms of glucose and the milk sugar lactose.
Eat in moderation sugars: dextrose, glucose, glucose solids, lactose and galactose, maltose,
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