Hidden sugars

Hidden sugars are in many processed foods-even those that seem healthy-and they often appear under many different names. Avoiding sugar was a big part of Tula's recovery and we avoided all added sugars until her gut was more stable. This included natural sugars, like maple syrup and honey. Manuka honey became a staple later on, because of its many benefits. After she had improved to the point of graduating out of ABA therapy (applied behavioral analysis), 5 grams of sugar per day was her upper limit.

Manufacturers will sometimes use a sneaky tactic called ingredient splitting, making a product appear less sugary than it really is. Some manufacturers prefer having a healthy sounding ingredient first because ingredients are ordered by weight, most prevalent to least prevalent. But they can split up sugars into 3,4,5 different types of sugar, each one appears lower on the ingredient list, thus giving the impression that sugars are less prevalent than they truly are (in total).

So make sure you are looking at the "total sugars" on a label-which are the naturally present sugars in the food+added sugars, and also "added sugars", the line below it. And don't forget to look at the serving size. A "serving" can be unrealistically small!

Agave nectar

Molasses

Maltose

Sucrose

Dextrose

Fructose

Corn syrup

Maltodextrin

Rice syrup

Organic can juice

Cane syrup

Cane sugar

Fruit juice concentrate

Evaporated cane juice

Coconut sugar

Date sugar

Natural sweeteners

Fruit juice

High fructose corn syrup

AND MORE THAN 200 MORE!

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