Cutting back on sugar can be extremely difficult as it isn’t always obvious where it hides. Many foods that appear to be healthy are often loaded with added sugar. Sugar is a sneaky ingredient, and for various reasons, it finds its way into products where we would least expect it—which can make breaking sugar dependence that much more challenging.

It is important to remember that sugar isn’t just referred to as sugar—it goes by more than 250 other names. It is beneficial to familiarize yourself with the other names that are commonly used for sugar. Knowing what names sugar hides behind can help you easily recognize added sugars when looking at food labels. Because of marketing techniques, many of these 250 names don’t even sound like sugar. Some of them might be sweeteners, but sound like they are healthier for you—such as agave nectar, maple syrup, and honey. On the flip side, some names for sugar don’t even sound remotely close to something that would be considered sugar—such as dextran, maltol, or panocha.

It is also important to understand that not all foods advertised as “healthy” are sugar-free. Nutrition bars, cereals, yogurts, and pressed juices are a few examples of foods that are marketed as “healthy,” but often contain hidden added sugars.

You may be wondering why there are so many different names for sugar in the first place. Despite the hundreds of names that sugar has today, this wasn’t always the case. The sugar found in our foods used to be in the form of sucrose, which came from sugarcane or sugar beets. Due to advancements in food technology, other types of sugar began to appear in the food supply. Scientists started developing different forms of sugar, which has more recently been due to the bad reputation sugar has in the media.

Food companies need to sweeten their product, but strategically labeling it as “fruit-juice sweetened” or “50% less sugar” sounds more appealing to consumers than including the fact that sugar is the primary ingredient. Food companies have also realized that they can add a lot of sugar to their product and hide it under a different name, so it won’t be easily recognized. Let’s say you purchase a box of fruit snacks, and the ingredient list includes agave syrup, fruit juice concentrate, sorghum molasses, and dextrin. You might initially think this product is sugar-free because the word “sugar” never appears in the ingredient list. In reality, this product contains four different forms of sugar—they’re just hidden!

The challenge most of us face is understanding which foods contain added sugar so we can limit or avoid them. With all the different names for sugar and the fact that the food industry is sneaky with sugar, it isn’t always clear which products contain it. To strengthen your understanding of added sugars and learn how to combat your dependence on sugar, check out my new book, SugarLess: A 7-Step Plan to Uncover Hidden Sugars, Curb Your Cravings, and Conquer Your Addiction.

References

This post is adapted from Dr. Avena’s new book, Sugarless: A 7-Step Plan to Uncover Hidden Sugars, Curb Your Cravings, and Conquer Your Addiction (2023).