What’s In Your Food? 2 Steps to Spot Hidden Sugars In Ingredient Labels

History of Nutrition Labeling

Nutrition labeling has been around since the 1960s. It was a loose tool for people to navigate the ingredients they were consuming. During the 1960s, more meals were consumed in the home, therefore the enforcement of transparency in labeling was not enforced the way it is today. I say “enforced” with a grain of salt. Even today nutrition labeling is not as transparent and manufacturers have a crafty way of including ingredients in broad form.

How to Spot Hidden Sources of Sugar

The easiest way to spot sugar in your food is to look at your food labels.

Step 1:

Under Nutrition Facts look at the “Total Sugars” in grams listed, including “Added Sugars”. Be mindful of this because you could be consuming additional, hidden, sugar. For example, lets say you have 12 grams listed under Total Sugars but you have 10 grams listed under Added sugars. What would be the total amount of sugar per serving? Answer: 22 grams of total sugar per serving.

Step 2:

Look at ingredients listed. Any of the following words should be a red flag for sugar being added.

Natural flavors, agave, corn syrup, maltose, fructose, sucrose, glucose, artificial flavoring, maltodextrin, dextrose. If you either can’t pronounce it or have absolutely no idea what it is, it most often is hidden sugar.