If you are trying to limit your intake of sugar, and especially if you are diabetic, you probably know that food labels can have many ways to list the same ingredient--sugar. Sometimes, several of these name will appear on the same product!
A good rule of thumb is to limit foods that have names on the label that you don't recognize as food. Another good method is to avoid foods that have more than 4 or 5 ingredients listed. Along with excess sugar, foods with a long list of scientific names tend to be full of artificial colors and flavors that don't have any benefit for your health.
Keep in mind that names for added sugars are always evolving. New ones pop up all the time. As consumers, we have to remain diligent in trying to figure out what is being added to our food. Here are over 30 of the most recent ways we've seen sugar hidden on food labels. I'm sure there are many more!
Agave nectar
Barbados sugar
Barley malt
Beet sugar
Buttered syrup
Caramel
Carob syrup
Castor sugar
Coconut palm sugar
Coconut sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Date sugar
Dehydrated cane juice
Demerara sugar
Dextrin
Dextrose
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Golden syrup
Grape sugar
HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup)
Invert sugar
Malt syrup
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Maltose
Mannose
Muscovado
Palm sugar
Panocha
Refiner's syrup
Rice syrup
Saccharose
Sorghum Syrup
Sucrose
Sweet Sorghum
Treacle