Pass (on) the sugar, sugar
BY DANIELLE RANCOURT
For Wild Northerner
I won’t sugar coat this.
Sugar is everywhere - specialty coffee, marinara sauce, BBQ sauce, yogurt, meal replacements, protein bars, dried fruit, bread, bottled sauces, dressings and smoothies … everywhere, I tell you. Well, almost. Some sugar is naturally occurring. Natural sugars are found in fruit as fructose and in dairy products, such as milk and cheese, as lactose. Still, sugar is more often than not added to most packaged foods. Reading the nutrition label is always a great idea, but here’s where it gets tricky; sugar has a variety of “secret identities” with more than 59 different names. This can make it challenging and frustrating as some words don’t resemble the word sugar at all.
To name a few…
•Fructose
•Sucrose
•Dextrose
•Maltose
•Maltodextrin
•Agave
•Honey
•Caramel
•Carob syrup
•Barley malt
•Malt syrup
•Corn syrup
•Beet sugar
•Cane juice
•Molasses
•Nectar
•Sorghum
•Sucanat
•Organic brown rice syrup
•Coconut sugar
•Evaporated cane juice
•Fruit juice crystals
•Raw sugar
•Invert sugar
That’s not even half of them!
Sweet Tips to remember:
•Sugars often end in “ose”
•The word juice is often a code word for sugar
•Sugars are often found among the first 3 and/or last 3 ingredients
•Added sugars are added sugars. Organic sugar is still sugar. If it’s among the top 3 ingredients, think twice before adding this item to your cart.
Now, I would be lying if I told you that I don’t love sweets or have a sweet tooth after most meals. Lucky for the both of us, there are many ways to satisfy a sweet tooth without reaching for candy, chocolate or pop.