Are you trying to eat healthier? If so, you’ve probably thought about eliminating or have already eliminated added sugar from your diet. If you haven’t thought about it or haven’t stopped eating added sugar already, maybe now’s the time?
Eliminating added sugar from the diet can be a challenge because of the many different names or what I call disguises of sugar. I actually think these disguises are intentional by the food industry to hide the sugars in foods. What I learned over the past 10 years is that sugar is a highly addictive ingredient and it keeps us wanting and craving more of it. And that makes the food industry rich!
I first read about the concept of sugar (and flour) being addictive ingredients in a book by Susan Pearce Thompson called Bright Line Eating. The premise floored me as I had no idea how addictive these ingredients actually were! I started doing more research on the subject and the more I read from a variety of sources, the more it made sense, and the more disgusted I got! I was mostly disgusted at myself for not understanding this till recently. Scary as this sounds, some argue that sugar and flour are as addictive as cocaine or heroin! What?
I set off on a quest to learn more about this addiction and through that research, I discovered that there are arguments to be made in favor of these being highly addictive foods and there are arguments to be made that they are not addictive. I firmly and without doubt believe that sugar and flour are addictive foods. And worse, I discovered that I was in fact addicted to both!
Determined to heal my addiction and eliminate both of these things from my diet, I put my hands on any and every article I could find on the subject and also learned that many health experts were giving talks and leading seminars and zoom calls with segments that actually reaffirm the same thing. When I eliminated sugar and flour from my diet, I actually had some withdrawal symptoms such as headache, irritability, fatigue, nausea and difficulty concentrating. Now, I can say without a doubt that I no longer craver sugar or flour.
I learned that there are different kinds of sugar and that our bodies react to those different sugars differently. In a previous blog post (“Find Your Sweet Spot” from December 2022) I address the different types of sugar and which ones are considered more healthy for your body than others. This post focuses on added sugars (which are the sugars that are not so healthy for our bodies) and outlines the many disguises or different names that added sugar goes by.
Even the less processed and healthier sounding sugars such as honey and maple syrup can affect blood-sugar levels (although not as much as regular table sugar). And some would argue because it also contains more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, such as calcium, potassium, vitamin C, zinc, phenolic acids, and flavonoids that is “healthier” than table sugar. That said, at the end of the day, it’s still considered “added” sugar.
So, If you are trying to eliminate added sugar from your diet, below are some of the different names for sugar that you should watch for on packaging and labeling so you know if the product you are buying actually contains “added” (or hidden) sugar or not.
The list below is an excerpt from an article published in 2018 by a woman named Anna Barnwell and I was so excited when I found it on the Virta Health website that I’ve been carrying it around ever since.
In the article Anna notes (and I paraphrase), that just because we don’t see the word “sugar” on the ingredient list when looking at a nutrition label doesn’t mean that the item is sugar or sweetener-free. Sugar goes by many different names. 68% of barcoded food products have added sweeteners, even if they are labeled as “natural” or “healthy.” And sugar can be hidden in other items on the list. For example concentrated orange juice may be listed on the label, and it most certainly contains sugar 99% of the time, but that is not disclosed on the label.
In my “Find Your Sweet Spot” blog (read it HERE), I briefly touched on label reading. Label reading to be a good idea as it’s the best way to make sure we aren’t consuming excess added sugars before we put the item in our grocery cart let alone our body! As a reminder, all ingredients on a food label will be listed by quantity from high to low meaning that the closer to the top or front of the list a form of sugar is, the more the product contains (that applies to any ingredient not just sugar).
And this list doesn’t include all the “street names” of chemical or artificial sweeteners. Click HERE if you are interested in reading about artificial sweeteners.
What products are you buying or feeding yourself or your family that contain added or hidden sugars? Just take a peek at what you have in your pantry, you might be shocked the items that contain sugar. Now that you know what you are looking for, there’s no disguising it!
The journey to a healthier, happier you is so worth it. I know—because I lived it.
I stopped chasing skinny and started focusing on my health—and that single shift changed everything. I lost 140 pounds, but more importantly, I found clarity, energy, and a life that finally feels like mine. I share the whole story in my book. Click here to learn more and see what’s possible.
