Is That Code For Sugar?
Published
It's day 2 of the Curb Your Sweet Tooth challenge!
Don't chastise yourself today for what you may learn about the sugar content in foods you enjoy. The focus of this exercise is to be aware of what the sugar content is in the foods you eat.
While you are looking at food labels for sugar content, also take a look at the ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires all packaged goods to have an updated “Nutrition Facts” label that clearly lists the amount of added sugars in a product. See more on added sugars on the FDA site here.
It’s helpful to recognize alternative names of sugar frequently found on food packages. Save the list below to quickly scan while grocery shopping too!
- Ingredients ending in “ose,” such as dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, and sucrose (these are the chemical names of sugar)
- High fructose corn syrup
- Cane juice and cane syrup
- Fruit juice concentrate and nectars
- Honey (although honey is natural, it still spikes blood sugar and has little nutritional value)
- Malt syrup
- Molasses
What else is code for sugar on ingredient labels? Do you see these ingredients in any of your favorite foods? How did you do yesterday? Tell us in our discussion or on Facebook, and join us on day 3.
Find this helpful? Share it with a nurse and invite them to sign up for the Curb Your Sweet Tooth challenge! Click on the social media links to the left of this screen!
Join the Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ (HNHN) Grand Challenge! An initiative to get our nation's 4 million nurses healthier.
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07/16/2018 6:54pm CDT
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Debi Blank
I can't find the stream but in looking for hidden forms of sugars I didn't see anything about syrups made from maple (East coast) or birch (Northwest). As a Mainer and maple lover it's tempting to use maple syrups & sugars in place of cane and other more "Refined" sugars. My diabetic father-in-law once poured one a half cup of our maple syrup and when I reacted strongly about it being pure sugar he answered , "Nonsense, it's all natural it's safe." I'm always reminded of that whenever I work with a diabetic child or teen.