Eating sugar-free reduces pain, reduces the pressure in your head and reduces large fluctuations in your blood sugar. The idea is nice, but are you sure you're eating sugar-free now? Do you know all the names of sugar?
Read labels
I can't make it any easier, it's really scouring the fine print on the packaging for the names of sugar. That's just where it starts. What is sugar actually called? There are very few packages that state that it contains sugar. Most manufacturers go out of their way to avoid the word sugar. There are at least 160 different names in circulation for the sugars that may be added to your product.
How do you deal with this
Avoid all packaging with the word .... sugar on it.
Note the additions with the words ....syrup, ....syrup, ....nectar and honey. This is all pure added sugar.
Pay attention to the words that end in -ose.
-ose indicates that it contains sugar. Just think of glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose etc.
Look up the words ending in -ol with google.
Many so-called sugar alcohols end in -ol. Do not confuse this with regular alcohol. These are sugar substitute sweeteners. Some are very common. In chewing gum and toothpaste. Just think of mannitol, xylitol, ethylmaltol and those kinds of difficult words.
Below I give a summary of the different names for sugar on food packaging. It contains no sweeteners (such as aspartame or the above-mentioned sugar alcohols). I would like this list to be complete. Unfortunately, food manufacturers are very creative in coming up with new names to deceive us. There are also many sugar names borrowed from other languages to confuse us (such as gula djawa). Eating sugar encourages eating even more sugar. You can see how this works in the video "how sugar affects the brain" by Nicole Avena. If we want more of the same product, we will buy more and the manufacturer will earn more. They make us addicted to their product and addicted to sugar. With all the undesirable consequences that entails.
- Agave nectar
- Agave syrup
- Maple cream
- Maple Syrup
- Apple juice concentrate
- Apple syrup
- Arenga (= Palm sugar from the sugar palm = Arenga pinnata)
- ‘Aroma’ (sugar + flavouring)
- Barbados sugar (= muscovado sugar)
- Caster sugar
- Beetroot juice
- Beet syrup
- Beet sugar
- Blackstrap Molasses (= 3x boiled sugar cane juice)
- Black treacle (= blackstrap molasses)
- Brown sugar
- Caramel (heated/burnt sugar)
- Carob (fruit) syrup
- Carobella syrup
- Castor melis
- Cyprus Black Gold
- Ready-to-use sugar
- D-glucose
- D-ribose
- Date syrup
- Demerara (= fine light brown cane sugar with a hint of caramel from the island of Mauritius)
- Dextrose (= another word for grape sugar and glucose)
- Diastatic Malt Extract
- Thick juice
- Dark / dark brown caster sugar
- Grape juice concentrate
- Dextrose (= glucose = monosaccharide = M-group of FODMAP)
- Final molasses (= blackstrap molasses = 3x boiled sugar cane juice)
- Fruit concentrate
- Fruit extract
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Fruit juice based on extracts or concentrates
- Fruit sugar (= fructose)
- Fructan (long hard-to-digest sugar chain from plants = F-group of FODMAP)
- Fructose (=Fruit sugar = monosaccharide = M-group of FODMAP)
- Fructose Invert Sugar Syrup
- Fructose syrup
- Galactose (= monosaccharide = M group of FODMAP)
- Burnt sugar
- Burnt sugar syrup
- Concentrated fruit juice
- Concentrated apple juice
- Concentrated pear juice
- Concentrated (…) juice
- Jelly sugar
- Yellow candy syrup
- Refined sugar
- Barley malt
- Barley malt sugar
- Millet syrup
- Glucose (= monosaccharide = M group of FODMAP)
- Glucose syrup
- Glucose-fructose syrup
- Golden syrup (=molasses=2x boiled sugar cane juice)
- Gula djawa (= Javanese palm sugar)
- Gula kelapa (= coconut blossom sugar)
- Gula melaka (= coconut blossom sugar (Malaysian name)
- Gula anau (= date palm sugar (Malaysian name)
- Gula aren (= date palm sugar)
- HFCS (=high fructose corn syrup)
- Honey (all kinds)
- Honeydew (=manna= excrement of plant sap-sucking insects such as aphids)
- Invert sugar
- Invert sugar syrup
- Invert syrup
- isoglucose
- Jaggery (= palm sugar)
- Javanese palm sugar
- Carob syrup
- Carob kernel syrup
- Candy
- Sugar candy
- Candy syrup
- Cinnamon sugar
- Caramel (= heated / burnt sugar)
- Caramel sugar syrup
- Sugar popping
- Coconut flour sugar
- Coconut blossom sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Crystalline fructose
- Lactose (= milk sugar = disaccharide of glucose with galactose = D-group of FODMAP)
- Light / light brown caster sugar (= fine granulated sugar with a hint of caramel)
- Skimmed milk powder (= about 50% sugar)
- Corn malt syrup
- Corn sugar
- Corn syrup
- Malt
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Maltose syrup
- Manna (=honeydew=excrement of plant sap-sucking insects such as aphids)
- Molasses (= 2x boiled sugar cane juice)
- Milk sugar (=lactose/monosaccharide)
- Malt extract
- Malt sugar
- Malt syrup
- Muscovado (= unrefined sugar with a strong molasses taste)
- Mycosis (= Trehala manna = the cocoon of the parasitic Trehala beetle)
- Nectar
- Primordial sugar
- Organic raw sugar
- Palm sugar (sugar extracted from the sap of the sugar palm = Arenga pinnata)
- Panocha (Spanish name for raw sugar from corn)
- Panela (Spanish name for cane sugar)
- Pearl sugar
- Pear juice concentrate
- Piloncillo (Mexican name for cane sugar)
- "Powder Snow"
- Powdered sugar
- Rapadura (Portuguese name for cane sugar)
- Cane juice
- Cane sugar
- Cane sugar syrup (= 1x boiled sugar cane juice)
- Rice syrup
- Rice sugar
- Raw cane sugar
- Sucrose (= regular table sugar / disaccharide)
- Pouring syrup
- Syrup
- Sorghum syrup
- Spelled syrup
- Sucanat (Sugar Cane Natural = cane sugar)
- Sucrose (= regular table sugar / disaccharide)
- Sugar syrup
- Table sugar
- Wheat glucose syrup
- Wheat malt
- Wheat malt sugar
- Wheat syrup
- Treacle ((cane) sugar syrup)
- Trehala manna (= Trehalose = the cocoon of the parasitic Trehala beetle)
- Trehalose (= Trehala manna = the cocoon of the parasitic Trehala beetle (Larinus maculata))
- Turbinado (= light brown cane sugar)
- Vanilla sugar
- Fruit extract
- Fruit concentrate
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Fruit sugar
- Fruit juices based on extracts or concentrates
- White caster sugar
- White sugar
- (modified) Starch (=long sugar chain from plants such as potato)
- Black cane molasses
Did you also notice that there are no sugar names with Q, U, X and Y? I do know the name Xylitol. But that's not sugar, it's a sweetener. So that doesn't count. Do you remember a sugar name that starts with a Q, U, X or Y? Or maybe you know a sugar name that isn't listed here yet? Let me know in the comment box and I'll add it.