Starting a sugar free diet is not always as easy as it may seem. One of the biggest challenges is to actually identify sugar in the ingredient list on the packages of products. Most western countries require food producers to list all the ingredients in their products on the package. Also, in some countries you might be able to find the total amount of sugar in a product on the label. However, this does not give you an indication how much of this is added sugar and what part of that naturally appears in the food.
The 50 different names for added sugar
Added sugar has many different names which it might appear as on the ingredient list. Some sources site as many as 50 other names for sugar. Producers might use these various denominations for sugar to better indicate the different origin or type of sugar, such as cane juice or fructose syrup. Another reason for manufacturers to use different words is simply to hide the fact that their products contain added sugars. Also, many consumers might think that fruit juice concentrate sounds quite healthy even though it is pure sugar.
Here is an overview of 50 different ingredients to avoid if you are on a sugar free diet. If you know any more names for sugar that I might have missed, be sure to add them in the comments down below. Also check out our sugar free food list to get a list of foods that are sugar free.
- Apple juice
- Barley malt
- Beet sugar
- Brown sugar
- Buttered syrup
- Cane juice crystals
- Cane sugar
- Caramel
- Corn syrup
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Carob syrup
- Castor sugar
- Date sugar
- Demerara sugar
- Dextran
- Dextrose
- Diastatic malt
- Diatase
- Ethyl maltol
- Fructose
- Fruit juice
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Galactose
- Glucose
- Glucose solids
- Golden sugar
- Golden syrup
- Grape sugar
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Honey
- Icing sugar
- Invert sugar
- Lactose
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Maple syrup
- Milk powder
- Molasses
- Muscovado sugar
- Panocha
- Refiner’s syrup
- Rice syrup
- Sorbitol
- Sorghum syrup
- Sucrose
- Sugar
- Treacle
- Turbinado sugar
- Yellow sugar