Top 10 Hidden Sugar Sources In Everyday Foods

People of all age categories looking for healthier diets often switch to breakfast cereals as the ‘healthier alternative’. But are they really healthy? Many breakfast cereals in India that advertise themselves as ‘healthy’ or ‘whole grain’ actually contain high levels of hidden sugars, which is alarming. Having such high quantities of sugar for breakfast can be detrimental to overall well-being in the long run.

When you think of salad dressing, you usually associate it with fatty components. However, there’s more; it also contains as much as 8-10% sugar, of which almost 7-8% could be added sugars. Hence, even healthy salad meals can become a source of sugar when you add salad dressings to them.

Tomato Ketchup is a kitchen staple that is found in homes. Every time a picky eater has a boring meal, they tend to pair it up with some ketchup on the side. This is your wake-up call: your regular ketchup also contains sugars; even small amounts can add significant sugar to an otherwise healthy meal.

Your regular gym trainer asked you to shift to yoghurt to add protein to your diet! Wait! Read your labels. Adding floured yoghurt as a part of your healthy regime can be more detrimental than you think. To balance the bland taste and texture of low-fat yoghurt, sweet components are added to make it more palatable.

Most processed foods contain high quantities of sugar. Sugar is used in various ways, such as taste enhancers, promoting the texture of food, and even as a bulking agent. A source suggests that almost 90% of added sugar in American diets comes from highly processed foods. Imagine the amount of sugar you can eliminate from your diet just by eliminating processed foods like baked products, chips, crackers, and more.

Canned fruits, by nature, have been developed to retain their flavour and texture for long periods of time. This is why it is common to add high levels of sugar and salt as preservatives during processing stages. If you are eating canned fruits with the aim of getting your daily fruit quota, it may be doing more harm than good.

It comes as no surprise that energy drinks are no good; they can pose serious health risks. Energy drinks have some of the highest quantities of sugar in this whole list. Most energy drinks can have up to 20 tsp of sugar in one 500 ml bottle. Imagine the harm one bottle of energy drink can do to your body. Be aware of the large amount of sugar present in most energy drinks.

The sugar in products often marketed as ‘healthy’ is the true villain of the list. Granola bars and protein bars are often consumed by those looking to move to heal their lifestyle. The lack of general awareness about the significant amounts of sugar in granola bars is the reason why most people don’t see promising results when they change lifestyles.

It is no surprise that cream biscuits, cookies, brownies and cakes are high in hidden sugars. However, you must take note of otherwise savoury items such as savoury biscuits, baked chips, and patties that also have sugar present in them. It adds texture, flavour and crispiness to baked items.

Nut butters, such as almond and peanut butter, also contain sugar. Therefore, it is important to read the label before purchasing any nut butter to determine whether added sugars are present.

• Ingredients are listed in descending order of rights. If you see sugar listed in the first 2-3 ingredients, know it’s mostly high in quantity.
• Added sugar is the additional sugar added to any recipe.
• Total sugar is the ‘added sugar + natural sugars = Total sugars”
• Common sugar names to watch out for include sucrose, glucose, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar, honey, maltose and dextrose.
• Beware of tall claims such as ‘healthy’, ‘all natural’, ‘organic’, and others.

Products such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins are all good sources of nutrition with negligible sugars.

When you cook, opt for fresh ingredients and minimally processed items. You can then control sugars.

You can choose to prepare sweet treats using natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup; however, they are still sugars.

Shift from unhealthy snacking habits like chips and munchies to nuts and seeds.