Added sugars
Please be aware that a food product can show added sugars as well. The ‘carbohydrates’ section on a food label will show both sugars and starches which makes it difficult to work out the exact amount of sugar. But a quick look at the ingredients list will tell you if the food contains added sugars as well.
Every ingredients list starts with the biggest ingredient first. So if you see any of the following near the top of that list then you have a food high in sugar:
- Sucrose
- Fructose
- Maltose
- Glucose
- Honey
- Invert sugar
- Corn syrup
The greater the number of these added sugars in that list the higher the sugar content.
Some foods contain more sugar than you think such as breakfast cereals, tinned spaghetti and baked beans. Baked beans on toast are considered to be a healthy snack but beans can contain more sugar than you might expect.
One way of reducing this is to look for low salt, low sugar varieties.
Food Labelling Guide Index:
- Food Labelling Intro
- What does this nutritional information mean?
- Fats (includes saturated fats)
- Salt
- Salt and Sodium
- Sugar
- Added sugars
- Cholesterol
- ‘Traffic light’ labelling
- E-numbers
- What are the most common types of additives?
- Guideline Daily Amounts