Things to Look Out For: Finding Hidden Sugar
Trying to avoid sugar can be difficult if you don’t know all of the names for it on food labels. Prevention.com gives a good list in the Many Names of Sugar.
- sucrose — glucose and fructose
- fructose — also called levulose
- glucose — monosacharide simple sugar, most important in the blood
- dextrose — another name for glucose
- galactose — monosacharide simple sugar, important in blood cell type
- lactose — milk’s sugar
- maltose — made up of two units of glucose
- invert sugar — honey, a mixture of glucose and fructose
- raw sugar — minimally processed raw sugar
- turbinado sugar — pure cane sugar extract
- brown sugar — sucrose and molasses or refined white cane sugar with molasses
- confectioner’s sugar — fine sugar with an anti-caking agent; made from milled white sugar
- granulated sugar — milled white table sugar
- corn syrup — glucose and maltose
- high-fructose corn syrup — produced by converting some of the glucose in cornstarch to fructose
- corn sugar — made from corn starch, is mainly glucose
- honey – invert sugar, an equal mixture of fructose and glucose
- maple syrup — mainly sucrose
- molasses — by-product of refining sugar from beets and sugar cane
- agave syrup — produced from agave cactus, has very high fructose content, higher than high fructose corn syrup!
