Avoiding Hidden Sugars, Get Them Out!

When you are planning on which formula milk to give to your kids, do you really read the nutrition facts or just take it from the shelf? Here is what I read from www.healthtoday.net

Even when a food product bears the claim 'low sugar' or 'sugar-free', do your own homework and take a look at the food label. The nutrition facts panel tells you how much sugar you are getting and where can you find the hidden sugars.

Serving Size info
- check the serving size. If you are drinking more than 250ml (if the serving size indicate 200ml), you will be consuming more sugars.

Carbohydrate
-Total carbohydrate tells you how much carbs are there in the item, including sugars. For ready-to-drink beverages, sugars must be listed in gram (g), the lower is the better. One teaspoon of white table sugar is equal to about 4 g.

Fibre
-In Malaysia, dietary fibre is listed separately. It is not mandatory to list dietary fibre.

Ingredients
-Listed by weight, from most to least, the ingredient list tells you what is in your food. Look for hidden sugars.

List of hidden sugar
-Sucrose
-Maltose
-Dextrose
-Fructose
-Honey
-Corn or maize syrup
-Corn syrup solids
-Glucose syrup
-Molasses
-Raw/brown sugar
-Treacle
-Hydrolyzed/modified starch
-Concentrated fruit juice
Carbohydrate (of which sugars)

Did you know that Lactose-milk sugar- is the only naturally-occurring sugar in milk. A standard serving of lactose in milk is 39g per 100g of powder, or about 10-12 g per serving. Anything higher than this signifies the presence of added sugars.