The American Heart Association recommends 25g of added sugar per day for women and 36g for men, but on average, Americans consume a whopping 68g per day. If you’re shocked, you’re not alone, but it makes sense considering all the ways sugar can make its way into our food. Food manufacturers add sugar to foods under at least 44 different nicknames, so it’s no wonder we consume added sugar without realizing it.
On a food label, the section for sugars lists total sugars and added sugars. Total sugars include both added sugars and natural sugars (like the kind found in fruit). While all of the added sugars will be listed, you won’t find natural sugars listed in the ingredients.
Added sugar is the type you want to reduce in your diet because it doesn’t have any fiber, vitamins or minerals alongside it the way natural sugars do. Next time you’re grocery shopping, check out the nutrition facts and ingredients label and look for these ingredients to get a sense of how much added sugar is in your food.
SPOTTING ADDED SUGAR
- Watch out for anything with “syrup” in the name
- Ingredients ending in -ose (glucose, sucrose, fructose…) are typically sugars
44 NICKNAMES FOR ADDED SUGAR
- Agave nectar
- Barley malt syrup
- Beet sugar
- Brown rice syrup
- Brown sugar
- Cane crystals
- Cane juice crystals
- Cane sugar
- Corn sweetener
- Corn syrup
- Corn syrup solids
- Crystalline fructose
- Date sugar
- Dehydrated cane juice
- Dextrin
- Dextrose
- Evaporated cane juice
- Fructose
- Fruit juice
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Glucose
- Glucose solids
- Glycerol
- Golden brown sugar
- Golden syrup
- Grape sugar
- High fructose corn syrup
- Honey
- Invert sugar
- Lactose
- Malitol syrup*
- Malt syrup
- Maltose
- Maple syrup
- Molasses
- Raw sugar
- Rice syrup
- Saccharose
- Sorghum
- Sorghum syrup
- Sucrose
- Syrup
- Treacle
- Turbinado sugar
*Malitol Syrup is a sugar alcohol that provides approximately 3 calories per gram with a glycemic index (52), close to that of sugar (60). Glycerol provides approximately 4 calories per gram.
Originally published March 2014, updated January 2023
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