De-mystifying sugars and how to avoid them in your food.

Have you ever tried going off sugar? Or have you told yourself that you don’t eat that much sugar? Did you know that sugars can be sneaky?

Well, they CAN. What I mean by this is, refined sugars can go by many names. Sometimes they don’t even sound like sugar at all. And who would know? Food companies take advantage of this and will hide sugar under multiple names. So, while you may not see ‘sugar’ on the ingredients list, you may see ‘polysaccarides’ or ‘diatastic malt’ - “what, the heck does that mean?”

I know, trust me, I know. It’s crazy! Refined sugars can go by many names. Sometimes, even natural sugars (like maple syrup) have added sugars in them. Food companies will use more than one type of refined sugar to disguise the fact that their product is mainly made up of sugar.

Why do they do this? Sugar is very addictive. Plus, it’s cheap. To increase their revenue, food companies pump their products with sugar to make it more addicting or palatable to the taste, so that consumers will buy more of THEIR product, THEIR brand.

But don’t let the food companies fool you. You have the knowledge and the power to make better choices for you and your body. Plus, I’ve taken all of the guess work out for you:

Here are the most common refined sugars that you may see on nutrition labels:

*It’s always so important to read your nutrition labels. You’d be surprised by how many of your favorite foods have a lot of added sugars in them.