Sweeteners in disguise

Avoiding sugar and its cousins doesn’t sound like it should very complicated. All you need to do is look at the ingredient list and see if sugar is one of the items. Easy, right? Wrong.

Sweeteners can be labeled under a score of different names, making certain products seem healthier than they are and causing problems for diabetics.

IVillage Total Health has put together a list of 24 ingredients that are really sweeteners in disguise. Some are sugar-based, some crop-based and some artificial.

There are obvious examples, such as honey or high-fructose corn syrup that, due to its low (subsidized) cost, is the most common sweetener,

used in Coke and Pepsi products as well as numerous bakery goods and sweets.

But

other sweeteners aren’t so easy to spot. Barley malt sounds like a cereal but it’s actually maltose sweetener used in beer and syrups. Same goes for brown rice, a common syrup ingredient entirely different from rice.

Take a look at a pack of sugar-free gum. It’s likely to list sorbitol or xylitol as the first ingredient. Both are sugar alcohols that are less sweet than real sugar (with fewer calories) and do not cause tooth decay, making them perfect for chewing gum. Though too much and the laxative properties of each will make itself known.

Sucanat (a copyright name short for “sugar cane natural”) and turbinado are both found in a mixture of foods, and unless you are a chemist, you probably wouldn’t know they were causing the sweet flavor.

Once you’ve memorized the IVillage list, try this sweetener quiz from the Corn Refiners Association. Yes, it’s a mouthpiece for high-fructose corn syrup but it does contain interesting information on honey, cane sugar and xylitol as well.

(Image via Flickr: LooseEnds)