Where are hidden sugars lurking in everyday foods?

Editor's note: Sugar is a "sweet memory" from many people's childhood, and it is also a temptation that adults find hard to resist. In moderation, sugar can stimulate the appetite and enhance flavor, but excessive intake can cause many harms to the body. In our daily lives, many foods neither carry the word "sugar" nor taste sweet, yet they are "sugar heavyweights."

Read food labels to understand "hidden sugars"

Sugars can be divided into four types, namely monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, and monosaccharides are further divided into fructose and glucose. Therefore, if you see the following terms on a product's nutrition list, consume them sparingly. When reading food labels, you should recognize many different names for sugar; all of the following ingredients are sugar:

Anhydrous glucose, maltose, beet sugar, brown sugar, cane juice crystals, sucrose, caramel, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, powdered sugar, carob syrup, white granulated sugar, date sugar, Demerara sugar, dextran, glucose, diastatic malt, ethyl maltol, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice, concentrated fruit juice, galactose, glucose solids, yellow soft sugar, yellow soft sugar syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, mannitol, maple syrup, molasses, muscovado, palm sugar, raw sugar, refiner's syrup, rice syrup, sorbitol, sorghum syrup, sugar, syrup, natural raw sugar. All of these are sugar, but these different types of "sugar" act in exactly the same way and produce different effects. However, if you want to substantially reduce your sugar intake, you still need to pay enough attention. The things we commonly eat in daily life more or less contain sugar; for example, rice and noodles also contain sugar, though not in high amounts. Below are some foods with high levels of "hidden sugar."

These foods are high in "hidden sugar"

Dairy products

Many people who are lactose intolerant will eat some dairy products to replace milk. But many dairy alternatives (such as soy milk, almond milk and coconut milk) also contain large amounts of sugar.

Some media have reported that although most lactic acid bacteria drinks state on their outer packaging that they contain sugar components, almost none clearly show the specific sugar content.

And it is understood that in the nutritional composition of lactic acid bacteria drinks, the so-called carbohydrate item actually refers to sugar content.

After comparing a variety of lactic acid bacteria drinks, it was found that according to the carbohydrate indicators labeled on the relevant products, more than half of the products had a sugar content exceeding 9g/100ml. If calculated on the basis of each sugar cube being 4.5g and each bottle of drink being 500ml, an ordinary bottle of lactic acid bacteria drink may contain the sugar of 10 sugar cubes.

Sauces

Adding sauces can make food more delicious, but it is not entirely beneficial to the food. Sauces usually contain large amounts of calories, salt and sugar. Even sauces that do not taste sweet may have a lot of sugar added. Have you ever noticed how much sugar pasta sauce contains? When we dip food into soy sauce-based products, we do not know how much sauce we have actually consumed. And some people drizzle sauce over vegetables, which makes it impossible for us to taste the food's original flavor and texture.

Any liquid substance poured over food to change its flavor is in fact a "sauce," containing large amounts of sugar, including ketchup, chili sauce and salad dressing. If you want to reduce your sugar intake, you can leave out the sauce or use "seasonings" with no added sugar (such as plain canned tomatoes).

Bread

Bread, English muffins and the like also contain a lot of sugar or corn syrup. Don't believe it? Go look at their ingredient lists!

Bread also contains hidden sugar. Relevant data show that white bread contains about 10-20 grams of white sugar per 100 grams, and this does not count the starch content of the bread. During bread making, white sugar is added to feed the bread yeast so it produces gas. Ingredients in a food ingredient list are ordered by amount used, and bread ingredient lists all list "white granulated sugar," and it appears relatively early in the list, which shows that the amount of white granulated sugar used is not small. What especially needs attention is that some salty breads also contain quite a lot of sugar.

Dry goods foods

Many dry goods foods such as beef jerky, dried fruit and dried fruit slices contain large amounts of sugar.

Foods such as beef jerky and beef slices hide quite a lot of sugar, so do not let children eat too much. Because sugar has a water-retaining effect, some beef jerky has sugar added during production to make the beef jerky soft, so it will not be too hard during eating and storage. This kind of beef jerky can also be regarded as a processed food with both "high salt and high sugar" characteristics. It is fine to eat some occasionally to satisfy a craving, but it is not recommended as a healthy snack to eat often.