Back

How to spot added sugar

You may not always realise which products have extra added sugar!

Eating more sugar than you need can contribute to gaining weight. This increases your risk of stroke, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Being able to spot foods which often contain lots of added sugar can therefore help improve your health! Watch out for foods such as:

– Fizzy drinks and squash

– Ready-made pasta sauces

– Cereals like muesli, cornflakes and granola

– Tomato ketchup and baked beans

– Foods sold as ‘low fat’ can contain extra sugar too

You should aim to eat no more than 30g of sugar a day (the equivalent of seven teaspoons of sugar). This may sound a lot, but one can of fizzy drink could contain more than 8 teaspoons! Food labels will tell you how much sugar is in food but, confusingly, it may be listed as ‘carbohydrates from sugar’ or be listed under an alternative name such as glucose, fructose, dextrose, agave syrup, honey and corn syrup. If you spot any of these near the top of the ingredients list, it means the food contains a lot of sugar! Many labels use a traffic light system to show if foods are high in sugar, fat and salt. Red means high, amber is medium and green is low. Read the labels to help guide your shopping decisions!

Back