50+ aliases for sugar—and 4 quick tips for sleuthing ‘em out

by Amy B. Beausang, PharmD, RPh, Certified Health Coach

I’ve already posted a bit about how I feel about sugar and it’s affects (See part 1). But I didn’t comment on how sneaky it is. Sugar exists in numerous, numerous forms. Often with names that look NOTHING like s-u-g-a-r. This stuff exists not just in cubes or packets of white crystals.

If you’re really trying to keep sugar out of your food—which is one of the smartest and most efficient ways to control weight, improve mood, boost immunity, and just increase your overall health and happiness—take a few minutes to scan this list of sugars in disguise.

And here are 4 tips to help you become your own Sugar Sleuth

1. Read the BACK of your food product labels! Don’t believe the marketing speak on the front.
2. Be especially wary of fat-free, low-cal, low-fat products as these are notoriously high in sugar!!! Hey–they gotta add something to make it taste decent once all the good stuff was taken out.
3. Be diligent about checking the back labels on yogurt, ketchup, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce, any kind of bread (even “whole wheat” or “multigrain”), cereal, bottled teas, juices, and “green” drinks, granola, breakfast bars, energy bars, marinades and sauces in general.
4. If you see a strange ingredient ending in “-ose”, it’s probably a sugar

Sugars in disguise

1. Agave (agave nectar)
2. Apple juice concentrate
3. Barley malt barley malt syrup
4. Beet sugar
5. Brown rice syrup
6. Brown sugar
7. Buttered syrup
8. Cane juice or cane crystals
9. Cane sugar
10. Caramel
11. Carob sugar
12. Castor sugar
13. Coconut sugar or coconut palm sugar
14. Coconut nectar
15. Confectioner’s sugar (aka powdered sugar)
16. Corn syrup or corn syrup solids
17. Date sugar
18. Dehydrated cane juice
19. Demerara sugar
20. Dextrin
21. Dextrose
22. Diastatic malt
23. Ethyl maltol
24. Evaporated cane juice (evaporated cane sugar or syrup)
25. Fructose
26. Fruit juice concentrate
27. Fruit juice crystals
28. Fruit puree
29. Galactose
30. Glucose, glucose solids or glucose syrup
31. Golden sugar / golden syrup
32. Granulated sugar
33. Grape sugar
34. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
35. Honey
36. Icing sugar
37. Invert sugar
38. Lactose
39. Malt or malt syrup
40. Maltodextrin
41. Maltose
42. Maple sugar
43. Maple syrup
44. Molasses
45. Muscovado
46. Nectar
47. Panocha
48. Raw sugar
49. Refiner’s syrup
50. Rice syrup
51. Sorbitol
52. Sorghum
53. Sucanat
54. Sucrose
55. Sugar
56. Treacle
57. Turbinado sugar
58. Yellow sugar