Swaps #3 - Which sweetener is healthy?
When it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, limiting your sugar consumption is likely at the top of the priority list. But which sweetener is the best? Let's explore.
There is no doubt that refined sugar in excess can cause impaired immune health, disturbance in our gut microbiome, inflammation, hormonal imbalance, aging of our skin, and so much more...
Our bodies can handle sugar, and if you are metabolically healthy, occasional treats will not affect your health. However, 7 out of 8 Americans are NOT metabolically healthy. So when they eat sugar, it has an exaggerated impact on their energy levels, mood, and mental clarity.
The typical western diet is so overridden with sugar that the overload becomes a burden to our immune, liver, and gut health. There is sugar in EVERYTHING - ketchup, yogurt, milk, granola bars, cereal, coffee, tea, you get the gist.
Food companies add sugar to get us hooked and buy more. Since consumers have woken up to the fact that too much sugar is bad for us, companies now try to disguise sugar in many different ways - from changing the name to misleading labels and marketing strategies, they have become masters at concealing sugar in their products.
How Companies Hide Sugar Content
Disguising the Name
One of the main things food companies do to hide sugar is to change the name from ‘sugar’ to something that seems to be healthier.
Food companies get creative when it comes to naming sugar on their ingredient list. For dry and liquid sugar, there are about 40+ different names they can use to disguise sugar.
Of course, there are typical pseudo names, such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose. But now that health-conscious people know to look for those, they have started using even more specific terms, because sugar comes in so many different forms.
For dry sugar, here is a list of common ones:
Anything with ‘sugar’ in the name (coconut sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar, date sugar, etc.)
Barley malt
Ethyl maltol
Maltodextrin
Dextrin
Dextrose
Maltose
Mannose
Saccharose
Panela
And for liquid sugar, it is usually added in the form of a ‘syrup.’ So keep an eye out for any ingredients with ‘syrup’ added to the end, as well as:
Agave nectar
Honey
Molasses
Misleading Marketing
Food companies hide sugar by promoting claims like ‘no refined sugar’ or ‘refined sugar-free.’
In reality, this wording simply means no white sugar is in the product, not that there is no added sugar.