You might think you don’t consume foods and beverages with high sugar content. You likely make conscious decisions to skip dessert, opt for wholewheat bread and low-fat dairy, while you prefer swapping out fizzy drinks for fruit juices. However, you may not be aware of how added sugars are part of your diet despite trying your best to make healthier eating choices.

Unknowingly consuming added sugars can be damaging to your health over time. The main consequences of a diet high in sugar are energy crashes and an increased risk of chronic conditions. Read on to discover how hidden sugars are likely sneaking into your diet.

How Healthy Foods Can Be Misleading

Did you know that many foods labelled as healthy are loaded with added sugars? These include flavoured yoghurt, granola bars, breakfast cereals, protein shakes, and low-fat snacks. For example, a single 150g tub of fruit-flavoured yoghurt can contain up to 20 grams of sugar, approximately five teaspoons of added sugar you are unaware of.

That’s nearly the full daily limit of added sugar recommended by the World Health Organization for adults. Adding a bowl of cereal or a smoothie can easily exceed that limit before midday. On the other hand, low-fat products are often the biggest culprits because when fat is removed, sugar is usually substituted to make the food more palatable.

Sugar in Savoury Products

Even if you try to avoid sweet foods, you might still unknowingly consume high levels of hidden sugar through your favourite savoury meals. Research suggests that sugar is commonly added to pasta sauces, salad dressings, canned vegetables, bread, soups, and ready-made meals. This popular method helps to balance acidity, preserve shelf life, and enhance flavour by creating a hostile environment for harmful pathogens to survive.

It’s easy to miss these sources because sugar isn’t the dominant taste. For example, a pasta sauce jar may contain several teaspoons of sugar per serving. A slice of wholewheat bread might include added sugar, such as molasses or glucose syrup. The problem lies when each item in your meal contains just a few grams of added sugar, and the total adds up quickly, leading to severe health concerns such as:

• Type 2 diabetes.
• Tooth decay.
• An increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Hypertension.
• Reduced brain function.

How Beverages are Major Sources of Hidden Sugar

Beverages contain high doses of hidden sugar. What makes them more harmful to your health is that you can drink them throughout the day without noticing how much sugar you have consumed. Even though you might be aware that fizzy drinks are high in sugar, it’s common to mistakenly believe that fruit juices, iced teas, sports drinks, and flavoured waters are healthier alternatives.

According to research, a single glass of orange juice can contain just as much sugar as a chocolate bar, often around 25 grams. This is why smoothies can become sugar-heavy when they include fruit juice, flavoured yoghurt, or sweet fruits like bananas and mangoes, even when you think they’re a healthier alternative. Moreover, when sugar is consumed in liquid form, it enters the bloodstream quickly and increases the risk of overconsumption.

How Food Labels Hide the Truth

Reading food labels is one meaningful way to monitor your sugar intake. However, it’s not always straightforward when you don’t know what to look for since manufacturers often use multiple forms of sugar under different names so that none appears first on the ingredients list. This might make it harder for laypeople to spot sugar as a dominant ingredient.

Approximately 50 names for sugar are used in ingredient lists, including dextrose, sucrose, maltose, corn syrup, cane juice, agave nectar, and fruit juice concentrate. Even though a product might not show that it contains added sugar anywhere on the label, it doesn’t mean it’s sugar-free. Another misleading aspect of labels is when they present the sugar per “serving size,” which is often far smaller than what people consume in one sitting, making you think the product is lower in sugar than it truly is.

The Health Impacts of Excess Sugar

The unnoticed overconsumption of sugar has far-reaching health consequences in the long run. It’s been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and certain cancers. Moreover, high sugar levels also play a significant role in mood instability, fatigue, weakened immunity, and inflammation.

One of the most concerning health consequences is how sugar affects insulin sensitivity. Over time, constant exposure to high sugar levels can dull the body’s response to insulin, leading to chronic conditions that are costly and difficult to manage. What starts as satisfying your sweet tooth in your breakfast or snacking can quietly impact your long-term health if not controlled.

Taking Control of Your Diet

Awareness of what you consume and its effects on your health and longevity is the first step towards healthier eating habits. Choosing whole, unprocessed foods is one of the most effective ways to reduce hidden sugar intake and avoid being misled by food labels. Preparing meals at home gives you better control over ingredients and allows you to make informed decisions about your diet.

When buying packaged items, take the time to read ingredient lists and nutrition servings carefully. Additionally, you should try your best to avoid products that contain more than one type of sugar, and limit beverages to water, herbal teas, or unsweetened alternatives. You can rely on your Affinity Health plan to use the Health Screening Benefit to help assess your vitals for any signs of underlying chronic concerns as you make more informed eating decisions about what’s in the food you’re consuming.