Let’s Name Sweeteners

Dear Dr. Meinig: I have been trying hard to not buy foods that contain sweeteners. Some of the names on labels are very confusing. How does the average untrained person cope with all these technical names? – S.B.

 

Dear S.B.: Food companies don’t really want us to be smart enough to know all the stuff they put into their products. Technical names in themselves can be confusing but manufacturers even invent new terms to further cloud the issue.

The problem with sweeteners is not only the large variety of them, but the many names that are used for the same sugar. Beatrice Trum Hunter in her book, The Sugar Primer, lists 73 names of sweeteners. You will note that the name of one or more of these will appear on almost every box or can of food you purchase in the market. Keep this list on your refrigerator or cabinet door. When you see an unfamiliar name, check it against this list.

Sugar by any other name…

How many of these 73 terms do you recognize as sugar?

 

artificial sweeteners  aspartame  Barbados molasses  beet sugar  blackstrap molasses  brown sugar  buttered syrup  cane sugar  cane syrup  caramel  carob syrup  confectionery sugar  cooking molasses corn sugar corn syrup  cyclamates  date sugar  dextran  Dextrin  dextrose  diastase  diastatic malt  dried corn syrup  dried glucose syrup  ethyl maltol  fructose  glucose  glucose solids  glucose syrup  golden sugar  golden syrup  grape sugar  high-fructose corn syrup  honey  invert sugar  invert sugar syrup  yellow D

kleen raw sugar  lactose  levulos  liquid brown sugar  liquid sugar  malt  malt sugar  malt syrup  maltol  maltose  maltose syrup  manna sugar  mannitol  mannose  maple sugar  maple syrup  molasses  non-nutritive sweeteners  pancake blend  pancake syrup  rare food sugars  raw sugar  refined sugar syrup  refiners’ syrup  saccharin  sorbitol  sorghum  sucrose  sucrose octa-acetate  sugar beet extract flavor base  sugar syrup  table molasses  turbinado sugar  xylitol  xylose  yellow sugar

 

Don’t be floored by the length of this list. You already know many of them. Others are repeated often enough to make you realize just how much manufacturers of food products try to capture you with sweets. Keep reading labels. With time you will recognize the names of many of the additives that are being put into our foods. The more you see, the more you will want to drop these foods for natural, unadulterated products.