Eliminating Added Sugars

Cutting back the sugar you consume will help you lose weight. But your target should be added sugar, not the naturally occurring kind.

Added sugars are sweeteners introduced to foods or beverages during processing. The FDA recommends that people consume no more than 10 percent of their total daily calories from added sugar.

You can identify added sugar because it’s included in the labeling criteria. What you need to do is become a label reader.

But be aware that sweeteners you want to avoid go by many different names, including agave, brown rice syrup, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrin, dextrose, glucose, fructose, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, mannitol, molasses, natural sweeteners, polydextrose, sucrose, syrup, turbinado sugar, and xylitol.

While some foods are obviously sugar-laden (desserts, sugared sodas, cereals), others contain added sugar you wouldn’t necessarily expect (salad dressings, barbecue sauces, ketchup). Even some brands of toothpaste contain hidden sugar.