The Sugar Diaries- Hide and Seek

We used to play a lot of games when we were young (video games were not that popular or accessible). The most fun was when cousins visited us or when we went to their homes. Then it was time for 'chupan - chupai' aka hide and seek. The best part was when one was hiding in plain sight, and still did not get caught!

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 I have played this game with my kids too. It remains one of the most loved game to this date.

But I had no idea that this game is popular with the food packaging industry too!

Today, the majority of processed foods have added sugars that are concealed by obscure or difficult-to-pronounce titles. They can be found not only in the dessert aisle, which makes sense, but also in the aisles with dips, sauces, pickles, chips, crackers, and even healthy foods like mueseli and granola!

Sugar is present in many of the foods we eat naturally.  It occurs in a variety of forms, including glucose, lactose, maltose, and fructose. Since they are typically bound with naturally occurring fibers that prevent a fast rise in sugar, none of them pose a serious health risk. It's the added sugars that we have to look into.

When consumed in significant amounts, added sugars in food are what cause a variety of bodily ills. Even the most astute person will overlook these sugars because they are concealed by over 50–60 names on the packs.

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Needless to say, that the road to good health is strewn with sugar chunks disguised as something else. So what next?

The key to navigating these murky waters is to look for a few keywords in the ingredient list. These will enable us to decide the items we really want to purchase:

  • 1. If it has syrup in his name (examples: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, rice syrup)
  • 2. If any ingredient ends in “-ose” (examples: fructose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose)
  • 3. If “sugar” is in the name (examples: raw sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, confectionary sugar, icing sugar)
  • 4. Other examples of added sugar include fruit nectars, concentrates of juices, honey, agave, and molasses.
  • I understand that using only whole, unprocessed foods all the time is unrealistic, so do this instead. Take the package and flip it over to read the ingredients. If you find the aforementioned sugars in large percentages, look for alternatives.
  • Did you know that sugar has been linked to mental health too?!!
  • We will explore it in the next post.
  • Till then be healthy, be curious.

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