Food labels and ingredients: how to correctly decode hidden sugar in ingredients?

Sugar is one of the most common components in the modern food industry, and it is added not only to confectionery products. Manufacturers use many synonyms so that the buyer does not immediately notice the amount of sweet additives in regular sauces, yogurts, and bread.

To successfully find hidden sugar, it is important to know its alternative names. All words ending in -ose, such as sucrose, fructose, or maltose, as well as any types of syrups and juice concentrates, are essentially the same sugar from the biochemical perspective of our body.

Fruit concentrates are especially insidious, as consumers perceive them as natural and healthy. In practice, the process of obtaining them deprives the product of fiber, leaving pure fructose, which puts a serious burden on the liver with excessive consumption.

Controlling the consumption of added sugar helps avoid many metabolic disorders. Carefully reading labels gives you complete control over what enters your body every day.