How many ways can you say sugar?

Did you know that sugar could be hiding in what you are eating right now? Oh, it might not be listed as "sugar", but it is most certainly in anything you are eating if it is packaged or processed. Even if you are diligent about reading the ingredients on packages, sugar can be hiding under aliases!

I realized that it was important to write a blog about this when I was working with a client who had a simple yogurt. Many people think yogurt is a healthy food, but what you don't realize is that it might have a lot of sugar hiding in it. This particular yogurt was a store brand of vanilla with graham crackers in it. It doesn't sound particularly healthy or particularly bad, it sounds like an ok addition to a healthy diet... at first.

Upon inspection of the ingredients, we found that there are 4 kinds of sugar in that yogurt! Four! No wonder people like it! The obvious sugar ingredient was labeled "sugar". The 3 other non-obvious sugar ingredients were: evaporated cane juice, honey and maple syrup.

Another common food that hides sugar is bread. Most people would agree that bread should be flour, water, yeast, and sometimes eggs. That's it... it's that simple. Too many times, sugar is added to bread to make it taste better. Due to the publicity of getting enough whole grains in your diet, whole grain bread is in demand. However, it does not taste like white bread (imagine that!). So, what are bread manufacturers doing? They are putting sugar in it to make it tastier. Once again, the ingredients list uses aliases for sugar so that an unassuming customer doesn't realize what they are eating.

Bottom line, what types of words should you look for and try to minimize in your diet? Here are some:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Maple Sugar
• Honey
• Evaporated Cane Juice
• Molasses
• Cane Juice
• Corn Syrup
• Corn Sweetener
• Maltose
• Beet Sugar
• Brown Rice Syrup
• Sorbitol
• Barley Malt
• Fructose
• Fructooliogosaccharides (phew, that's a big one!)
• Sucrose
• Maltose

What happens when you have too much sugar? You gain weight, feel hungry all the time, get irritable easily, etc. In addition, you put yourself at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and a whole host of other ailments. So, next time you are looking for a healthy snack and must resort to something packaged, make sure you are able to spot sugar aliases on the label and make an informed decision.