Added sugars must be Listed on Food Labels
Posted by Kelli de Sante' on 13th Sep 2020
Added sugars in packaged foods must now be listed on food labels.
Knowing how much sugar and what kinds are in packaged foods has become a little easier with this food labeling requirement. 1*
We try to eat right. We focus on keeping our guts healthy. But sometimes despite our best efforts to eat right and stay healthy, we get sugar in our diets without even realizing it. Sometimes we choose to treat ourselves to an ice cream cone or a slice of birthday cake. But when you are trying your best to eat healthfully and then you find out that there is more sugar in something than you believed, you feel a little “tricked”.1*
While we know sugar is in candy, cookies, and sodas, it can also be in many packaged foods such as salad dressing, sauces, bread, crackers, and more. Because of this, the Food and Drug Administration made a change to the Nutrition Facts portion of food labels which was rolled out in 2018 for large food companies and 2019 for smaller companies to include a line item for “added sugar,” which you’ll find below the line for total sugar. This change was established to make a distinction between those sugars that occur naturally in food and the sugars that are added by food manufacturers to boost flavors.1*
This change came as a result of a detailed survey of packaged foods and drinks available for purchase in US grocery stores. The researchers, from the University of North Carolina, looked at every individual processed food in the store and found that 68 percent had added sugar. While some were products that were obvious sweet foods, not all were and included soups, pasta and barbeque sauces, fruit juices, and even meat products. 1*
If you are a label reader, which I hope you are, you might have thought you could identify when a product contains added sugar simply by reading the ingredients. While many foods list sugar in their ingredients, many list alternate, unrecognizable words for sugar that are still basically sugar. While most of us are familiar with high-fructose corn syrup, and pure cane sugar, there are other words such as evaporated cane juice, agave, rice syrup, clintose and dextrose, among other words that most people would not identify as sugar. Some of these words are: 1*
- agave juice, nectar, syrup or sap
- beet sugar
- brown rice syrup
- brown sugar
- the cane juice, cane syrup, cane sugar
- clintose
- confectioners sugar and confectioners powdered sugar
- corn glucose syrup, corn sweet, corn sweetener, corn syrup, high glucose corn syrup
- date sugar
- dextrose
- drimol, dri mol, or dri-mol
- drisweet, dri sweet or dri-sweet
- dried raisin sweetener
- edible lactose
- flo malt, flo-malt, flomalt
- fructose, fructose sweetener
- glaze and icing sugar, glaze icing sugar
- golden syrup
- gomme
- granular sweetener
- granulated sugar
- hi-fructose corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup
- honey
- honibake, honi bake, honi-bake, honi flake, honi-flake
- invert sugar, inverted sugar
- isoglucose
- isomaltulose
- kona ame, kona-ame
- lactose
- liquid sweetener
- malt, malt sweetener, malt syrup
- maltose
- maple, maple sugar, maple syrup
- mizu ame, mizu-ame, mizuame
- molasses
- nulomoline
- powdered sugar
- rice syrup
- sorghum, sorghum syrup
- starch sweetener
- sucanat
- sucrose
- sucrovert
- sugar beet
- sugar invert
- sweet n neat
- table sugar
- treacle
- trehalose
- tru sweet
- turbinado sugar
- versatose1*
According to the paper’s author, Barry Popkin who is a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina, the “…wide variety of sugars is not always meant to confound consumers…” Rather, food scientists choose the various sugar types to give their products the optimal flavor and texture. While some do better in soft drinks, those same sugars might not be as good in bakery items. Price is also a factor.1*
Another type of sugar is fruit juice concentrates. These are juices “…that have been stripped of nearly everything but sugar and evaporated…”. Many foods that we would think are healthful contain fruit juice concentrate or apple juice concentrate. This is simply sugar. With the new labeling requirements, this has become clearer to understand.1*
Sugar in high amounts is just not good for us so this labeling is important. Consuming too much sugar puts us at risk of developing many health issues to include type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, as well as accelerated skin aging, acne and depression, among others. Too much sugar is not good for our microbiome as it serves to feed the unhealthy bacteria in our guts, especially Candida Albicans, an aggressive unfriendly bacteria. When an overgrowth of Candida occurs, it can make us feel lethargic, depressed, and fatigued, and it becomes very difficult to battle. It leaves us with intense sugar cravings, as that is what feeds Candida. The best way to avoid this is by eliminating added sugars from our diets, and increasing friendly bacteria found such as those found in Body Biotics™ Bio-Identical SBO Probiotics Consortia™. (1,2)*
These new guidelines should help us all as we navigate food labels and continue our pursuit of a healthy diet. Being the most informed we can be, will only help us in our charge to be at our best. Limiting sugar and keeping the microbiome healthy with foods high in fiber, lots of fruits and vegetables, and limiting unhealthy lifestyle habits are all part of this. And of course, staying on course with Body Biotics™ Bio-Identical SBO Probiotics Consortia™. *
Making a concerted effort to eat right is so important and takes a lot of will power and discipline. Being undermined by hidden sugars in our food is not part of that program. I hope this information is helpful in your pursuit of good health. Next time we will explore further the unwanted health risks of having too much sugar in our diets.*
Healthiest wishes,
Kelli
Resources: