Riddle me this: Is the sugar in an apple really the same as the sugar in candy?
When it comes to sugar and your health, the answer isn’t as simple as you might think. There’s plenty of confusion about different types of sugars and how to read a nutrition label to make healthier choices.
To help test your sugar smarts, Emily Case, a registered dietitian at Northwell Health, provided two sets of statements, each containing two truths and a lie, to help us better understand how the sugars in our food affect our health.
Round #1: Can you find the lie?
Statement A: Natural sugars in whole foods, like fruits and vegetables, come with fiber, vitamins and minerals that affect how your body processes them.
Statement B: To stay healthy, you should cut all sugar from your diet, including the natural sugar found in fruit.
Statement C: The added sugars line on a nutrition label tells you how much sugar has been added to a food, separate from naturally occuring sugar.
The two truths:
Natural sugars in whole fruits are healthy because they don’t exist in isolation.
When you eat a whole fruit, its sugar — the simple sugars glucose and fructose — comes packaged with fiber, water and other nutrients. This slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, leading to a more gradual rise in blood sugar and helping you feel satiated.
Some parts of a nutrition label can admittedly be confusing. But the added sugar line is relatively straightforward: It tells you how much sugar has been added to a food beyond what occurs naturally.
Take milk, for example. It naturally contains about 12 grams of sugar in the form of lactose — the simple sugars glucose and galactose. A label might list 12 grams of total sugars and 0 grams of added sugar.
Chocolate milk, on the other hand, might have 25 grams of total sugar, with about 13 grams listed as added sugars from sweeteners used to give it its chocolate flavoring.
Which brings us to statement B, the lie:
Reducing added sugars is a worthwhile health goal. But going out of your way to avoid or minimize whole fruits because of their natural sugar content generally isn’t recommended. Fruits provide a wide variety of essential nutrients and fiber that are crucial for good health.
“The benefits of whole fruits far outweigh the concerns about their natural sugars for most healthy individuals,” said Case.
Instead, she advised focusing on reducing added sugar while being mindful of portion sizes.
Round #1: Can you find the lie?
Statement A: The American Heart Association recommends limiting added sugar while encouraging whole foods with naturally occurring sugars and other nutrients.
Statement B: The added sugars line can help you spot sugars that may be hiding under more than 50 different names on an ingredient list.
Statement C: Sweeteners like honey, maple syrup and fruit juice concentrates are natural sugars, so they don’t count toward the added sugars total on a nutrition label.
The two truths:
We’ve established that the sugars naturally found in whole fruits can be part of a healthy diet. The same goes for the naturally occurring sugars in vegetables, milk and other whole foods.
When you eat these foods in their whole form, their naturally occurring sugars come packaged with fiber, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Added sugars, however, provide calories without those same nutritional benefits.
Case insists there’s no need to “fear nutrient-rich whole foods,” and the American Heart Association also encourages a whole foods diet.
Things get trickier with processed foods.
You’ve probably heard of corn syrup, but what about dextrose, malodextrin or barley malt? Food manufacturers use a variety of names for added sugars, all of which contribute to a food’s added sugars count.
Thankfully, you don’t need to memorize all of them. The added sugar line captures the various forms of sugar that have been added to a food, including some you might not realize need to be limited.
Which brings us to statement C, the lie:
When honey, maple syrup and fruit juice concentrate and other naturally derived sweeteners are added during food processing, they are considered added sugars.
Because they aren’t naturally packaged within the food and don’t come with its fiber and nutrients, they should be counted toward your overall added sugar intake.
“Becoming an informed label-reader means understanding that not all sugars are created equal,” said Case. “By paying close attention to the added sugars line on nutrition labels, you empower yourself to make healthier choices and drastically reduce or eliminate your intake of sugars that offer little more than empty calories.”
Her main takeway? Choose whole foods and be mindful of the added sugars hiding in processed products.
