Your guide to spotting and avoiding secret sugars

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Nov 12th 2006 10:56AM

Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Does a sugar by another name have just as much calories? Not always, but usually. As a healthy consumer, it's your job to educate yourself on the many names and guises sugar uses to hide itself and entice you, the buyer, into consuming it. Armed with this new information, you should be able to conquer the grocery store with ease, making sure that you and your family don't end up with high-glucose foods that will wreak havoc on your waistline and your health.

What I'm trying to say is: sugar's not only found in the blatantly sweet foods like cake and cookies. It can be hidden in many things. As a rule of thumb, I avoid things with ingredient name's ending in 'ose', like fructose, maltose, dextrose, etc. What are your tips?

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Comments (8)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mary 11-12-2006 @ 11:57PM

Very good advice My husband was recently diagnosed with diabetes,and the new rule of thumb is a carb is a carb and they all metabolize into sugar. We are eating way too many processed foods and not enough natural foods. We still enjoy the occasional fast food or chip frenzy (potato or chocolate), but we read labels a much more now.

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Kathleen 11-13-2006 @ 12:00AM

As a current medical student, I would like to add another sugar tip. It is better to avoid processed sugars, than natural ones. This advice seems obvious, but is very hard to avoid processed sugars. High Fructose Corn-Syrup is a processed sugar that is in everything--sodas, cereal and even bread. This sweetener was created by changing the chemical structure of Corn Syrup which makes is sweeter and the process is inexpensive so companies save money by using this alternative. The obesity problem in this country began around the same time that this sugar alternative was put on the market. Of course this fact is not spoken of, because many media outlets have advertisers that use this chemical in their products. It is believed that this chemical is not recognized by the body as sugar so the hormones that are normally released to calm hunger at not released. Whereas the body does recognized glucose and other natural sugars and fat cells release hormones that cause hunger cessation.

Melynda 11-16-2006 @ 11:53AM

I agree with what Kathleen has to say about high fructose corn syrup. It is in everything! I have quit drinking any kind of soft drink. It is near to impossible to find any sparkling beverage without it in it. Recently, I found one that said,"does not contain high fructose corn syrup.", and then in the contents on the lable, it said that it contained "high fructose corn syrup crystals". How stupid do they think that we all are? Does anyone know of a bottled tea or soda that does not contain this? I would really like to know if any exist out there?

Barbara 11-13-2006 @ 1:54PM

I have been checking ingredients for a couple of months now and trying to avoid processed foods as much as possible. I do look for the high fructose corn syrup on labels but am wondering...
I have found an number of things that only list corn syrup as the sweetner. My first inclination is that this is different but the more labels I read I am beginning to wonder.

Annie 11-13-2006 @ 1:54PM

I was surprised the article did not go more indepth about the negative impact of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and am glad to see other posters bring up the fact that it is more unhealthy than natural sugar. The interference from HFCS (in the body) can cause additional weight gain, type II diabetes, insulin resistance, etc. etc. The national lobby group for corn is extremely powerful. If anyone takes the time to do a bit of research in the nutritional/medical journals, the data is there.

To the poster that is looking for soda w/ no sugar or HFCS - try the health food stores dedicated strictly to that purpose. There are quite a few - all natural substances, mostly spicing for flavor. On the expensive side, tho.

Belle 11-13-2006 @ 1:54PM

Although I do not like to drink carbonated drinks, Hansen's sodas do not include high fructose corn syrup. Instead, they include cane sugar. Sodas from the Mercury Bottling Company also use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Izzy's sparkling fruit juces and some cranberry juices that are 100% juice should not contain high fructose corn syrup either. Of course in any case, even with these products that I have listed, you should continue to always read the labels. Good luck!