How to spot sugar in food ingredient lists

There’s a simple way to cut down on your sugar intake, and it doesn’t need any calorie or gram counting.

Look at the ingredients list on packaged foods. If it puts any form of sugar in the first three ingredients, don’t eat it.

However, sugar can go by many names, which can make it hard to spot on food ingredients lists.

Sugar can also be listed under these other names: 

– Anything with sugar in the name (including brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar and invert sugar)
– Anything with cane in the name (cane crystals, evaporated cane juice)
– Anything that ends in ose (dextrose, glucose, sucrose)
– Anything with syrup in the name (corn syrup, maple syrup, malt syrup, brown rice syrup)
– Anything with nectar in the name (peach nectar, pear nectar)
– Agave
– Fruit juice concentrate
– Honey
– Molasses

This information is especially useful for those on The Sugar Challenge, where people cut sugar from their diet for two whole weeks. This can be pretty easy when you’re preparing your own meals, but so many meals come pre-packaged now, and the list above will help make sure you don’t consume any sugar without even realising it!