The recent revelation that so-called ‘healthy’ baby food pouches contained more sugar in a single pouch than a one-year-old should have in a day has got us thinking: what else are we consuming that’s a sugary mess cloaked in health claim-filled packaging?
It’s no secret that the UK population has a problem with sugar. The average person is consuming between 9% and 12.5% of our calories from free sugars, depending on the age group, according to stats from the British Nutrition Foundation. This is approximately twice the 5% recommendation from the NHS. But where is it all coming from? Apparently, foods we might consider ‘healthy.’
From fruity yoghurt to sports drinks, here are nine ‘healthy’ sugar traps to look out for.
9 ‘healthy’ foods high in hidden sugar
Low-fat yoghurt
Yoghurts labelled as ‘low-fat’ can often be hidden sugar traps. To enhance the taste of the yoghurt without its naturally present fat, manufacturers often lace low-fat yoghurts with sugar. This is especially true for fruity-flavoured yoghurts – at Tesco, a pot of Creamfields Strawberry Low Fat Yoghurt contains over double the amount of sugar than a pot of Creamfields Greek Style Natural Yoghurt (10.3g per pot vs 4.6g).
Rice cakes
While rice cakes might seem like a healthy low-fat snack option, some versions can be chocka-block with sugar. Watch out for rice cakes coated in chocolate or yoghurt as these can be much higher in sugar than you might expect. Just one Salted Caramel Rice Cake from M&S contains one third of your recommended daily sugar intake (8.2g of your 30g allowance). Up that to two dunked into your morning coffee and you’re almost two thirds of the way there.
Energy bars
It’s hard to avoid the enormous collection of energy bars touting ‘high-protein’ and ‘added vitamins’ at the supermarket checkout these days. While adding one of these bars to your meal deal might seem like the healthier choice, some products can be seriously high in sugar. For example, Trek’s Millionaire Shortbread Power Protein Bar contains 11g sugar per bar – one third of the recommended daily amount.
Dried fruit
Not all dried fruits are created equal. In general, naturally dried fruit is a healthier way to consume sugar than sweets or juices because it comes packaged with fibre and vitamins. However, some fruits like cranberries are soaked in sugar pre-dehydration, making them an unexpected sugar-laden snack. In fact, a 30g serving of dried cranberries contains a rather sizeable portion of sugar – 20g, to be precise. That’s more than a can of Sprite!
Sports drinks
Sorry long-distance runners, it turns out that sports drinks are a massive secret sugar culprit. A 500ml bottle of Powerade Berry & Tropical Sports Drink contains 20g of sugar and a Lucozade Sport Drink Orange contains 17.6g of the stuff. So, while the marketing language on these bottles might make you think you’re getting an electrolyte-replenishing drink for extra energy, what you’re really drinking is a whole lot of sugar.
Cereal
Cereal makes a great midnight snack, right? Perhaps not. Plenty of our favourite crunchy bowls are packed with hidden sugar. In fact, a Which? survey found that 32 out of 50 breakfast cereals are high in sugar. The biggest culprits are the fancier boxes like Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut and Kellogg’s Frosties (both 11g per 30g bowl). However, a bog-standard bowl of cornflakes from Kellogg’s contains much less sugar at 2.4g per 30g bowl.
Juices
Your morning glass of OJ (yes, even with pulp for ‘fibre’) is a particularly big sugar trap. Just 150ml of Innocent Orange Juice With Bits contains 12g of sugar. While some companies may brand this sugar as ‘naturally occurring,’ under NHS guidelines unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies still count as ‘free sugars’ aka the type of sugars we’re all getting a little too much of. Pre-made smoothies are also a culprit for mega sugar-time here, with a 300ml bottle of Innocent Super Smoothie Energise containing 30g sugar – that’s your whole recommended allowance.
Honey, agave and maple syrup
Sorry, sweet toothed-cooks. Honey, agave and maple syrup all still count as sugar. Honey contains the most (6 grams per teaspoon). Maple syrup is produced by boiling the sap from maple trees, which while it contains fewer additives than some sugars, is still included in the sugar family. Agave is often lauded as a more ‘natural’ sugar, but during the syrup-making process any naturally occurring enzymes are transformed into fructose aka sugar.
Granola
While a sprinkle of tasty granola on your morning yoghurt bowl might look (and taste) great, it could also be responsible for your 11 am sugar crash. Granolas marketed as ‘natural’ and ‘authentic’ can actually be incredibly high in sugar, with packs from Quaker Oat and Jordans serving up around 10g of sugar per portion. Most granola companies will say a serving size is anywhere between 30 and 50g, but most granola-eaters will likely serve up more than this, potentially adding even more to their daily sugar intake.
How to reduce your sugar intake
Now that you know all of the so-called ‘healthy’ foods that might be tripping up your sugar levels, how do you go about down-sizing the part sugar plays in your life?
- The first step is to get food label-savvy. In general, the higher up sugar or even naturally-occurring sugar appears on a food label appears, the greater proportion of sugar in the food. Look for the ‘carbohydrates of which sugars’ figure on the nutrition label.
- According to government guidelines, high-sugar foods contain more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g and low sugar foods contain 5g or less of total sugars per 100g. If something contains around 8-10g of sugar per portion it’s likely it counts as a high-sugar food.
- Stick to 150ml and under for fruit juices and smoothies if you can – this way you’ll be getting all the fibre and vitamin goodness without the massive sugar hit.
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