Sugar Has 50+ Names

When checking the ingredient list of a food product for sugar, it’s not as easy to find as it might seem. Sugar goes by many names. Why?

  • It’s partly because different forms of sugar offer different chemical properties to a product, like texture or longer shelf life.
  • It’s also because some forms of sugar are less expensive for manufacturers to use.
  • And of course, it is likely that some manufacturers, while trying to make their products taste good with plenty of sugar, are perhaps trying to disguise or down-play how much sugar their products contain so we keep buying them.

Well, as always, you are your own best advocate. Familiarize yourself with these sugar terms and you can be well-informed when you read ingredient lists. There may be more out there, but it’s a good start. If it’s too overwhelming, I hear ya–you can always just choose unprocessed, easy, real foods!

  1. agave juice
  2. agave nectar
  3. agave sap
  4. agave syrup
  5. beet sugar
  6. brown rice syrup
  7. brown sugar
  8. cane juice
  9. cane sugar
  10. cane syrup
  11. clintose
  12. confectioners powdered sugar
  13. confectioners sugar
  14. corn glucose syrup
  15. corn sweet
  16. corn sweetener
  17. corn syrup
  18. date sugar
  19. dextrose
  20. drimol, dri mol, dri-mol
  21. drisweet, dri sweet, dri-sweet
  22. dried raisin sweetener
  23. edible lactose
  24. flo malt, flo-malt, flomalt
  25. fructose
  26. fructose sweetener
  27. glaze icing sugar
  28. golden syrup
  29. gomme, gum syrup
  30. granular sweetener
  31. granulated sugar
  32. hi-fructose corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup
  33. honey
  34. honibake, honi bake, honi-bake
  35. honi flake, honi-flake
  36. invert sugar, inverted sugar
  37. isoglucose
  38. isomaltulose
  39. kona ame, kona-ame
  40. lactose
  41. liquid sweetener
  42. malt
  43. malt sweetener
  44. malt syrup
  45. maltose
  46. maple
  47. maple sugar
  48. maple syrup
  49. mizu ame, mizu-ame, mizuame
  50. molasses
  51. muscovado sugar
  52. nulomoline
  53. powdered sugar
  54. raw sugar
  55. rice syrup
  56. sorghum
  57. sorghum syrup
  58. starch sweetener
  59. sucanat
  60. sucrose
  61. sucrovert
  62. sugar beet
  63. sugar invert
  64. sweet n neat
  65. table sugar
  66. treacle
  67. trehalose
  68. tru sweet
  69. turbinado sugar
  70. versatose

 

Source:

Popkin BM and Hawkes C. Sweetening of the global diet, particularly beverages: patterns, trends, and policy responses. The Lancet. 2016; 4(2):174-186.

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