50 Names for Sugar You May Not Know
Most of us enjoy sweet stuff occasionally. But, if you’re trying to cut back, it’s really helpful to know the different names for sugar, otherwise you could end up eating much more than you expected.
Sugar is added to so many food products, and with such a large number of other names for ‘sugar,’ it can be really difficult to know what to look out for on the food label.
flickr: dhammza
So, here is a list to help you identify the different forms of sugar in your food:
- Barley malt
- Beet sugar
- Brown sugar
- Buttered syrup
- Cane juice crystals
- Cane sugar
- Caramel
- Corn syrup
- Corn syrup solids
- Confectioner’s sugar
- Carob syrup
- Castor sugar
- Date sugar
- Demerara sugar
- Dextran
- Dextrose
- Diastatic malt
- Diatase
- Ethyl maltol
- Fructose
- Fruit juice
- Fruit juice concentrate
- Galactose
- Glucose
- Glucose solids
- Golden sugar
- Golden syrup
- Grape sugar
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Honey
- Icing sugar
- Invert sugar
- Lactose
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Maple syrup
- Molasses
- Muscovado sugar
- Panocha
- Raw sugar
- Refiner’s syrup
- Rice syrup
- Sorbitol
- Sorghum syrup
- Sucrose
- Sugar
- Treacle
- Turbinado sugar
- Yellow sugar
What other names for sugar can you think of?
Did you realise there were so many different terms used? It’s no wonder reading food labels can be confusing at times!
Note: After reading this, you may also be interested in How to Reduce Sugar Intake or discovering if there is such a thing as Healthy Sugar.
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21 Comments
Danielle
03.27.2009
I had no idea there were that many names for sugar! thanks for posting this!
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Melanie
03.27.2009
Hi Danielle,
I didn’t realise there were so many alternatives either. While is not necessary to totally avoid sugar, it’s useful to know what to look out for.
Cathy in NZ
03.28.2009
then of course, there’s the actual product that some how fails to mention anything….i.e. do those chup-pop (?sp) things actually any writing about sugar….I often hear people saying that
xyz is OK ’cause it says nuthink! so therefore it must be Ok!
I suspect there are other ways not to say all those words….like a – bet-ween something……so we are lured into believing it must be better because they have attached a good-thing to the product
Sophie
03.28.2009
Great list Mel – some of these are really sneaky, like the Ethyl maltol and Diatase
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Bowl of Plenty
03.28.2009
An alternative name to “cane juice crystals” is “evaporated cane juice”.
Maija Haavisto
03.28.2009
E.g. sorbitol is a sugar alcohol (like its healthier cousin xylitol), not a sugar, strictly speaking.
Melanie
03.28.2009
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your comments.
One80 Fitness
04.01.2009
Great list! the list is so long. a few more off the top of the head you might see on a package are:
Raisin syrup
Apple Sugar
Amasake
Barbados sugar
Carbitol
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Melanie
04.01.2009
One80 Fitness,
Thank you for adding more to the list, it seems we could go on for a long time yet adding to this. It’s really quite scary how many different forms of sugar there are out there!
Linda Schultz
04.05.2009
One sugar substance I have discovered recently is sugar alcohol in so called sugar free candies. If you have any information about this sugar substance please let me know about it.
Melanie
04.07.2009
Hi Linda,
I found this article which you should find helpful in understanding what sugar alcohols are and what they do in the body.
Deborah
11.07.2009
Xanthan Gum is fermented corn sugar. Locust Bean Gum is a polysacharide made from the sugars galactos & mannose. Galactos is on the above list. Mannose is a hexose sugar monomer & I am unsure of the results when eaten.
Jennifer
09.10.2010
Im in a program for food addiction. We abstain from ALL flour & sugar. The second we have anything with a trace of either, we get UNCONTRALABLE cravings. I had heard that a certain brand of ranch dressing is abstinate. Well, I was wrong! I couldnt imagine why I couldnt stop eating & obessing about it. Well here maltodextrin is the first ingredient… Just goes to prove that I need to stay away from anything with a ingredient list… For now on the only dressing I will be using is good ole olive oil & apple cider vinagar…
Melanie
09.17.2010
Hi Jennifer,
What do you cover/do in your program for food addiction?
Tareah Davis
12.04.2010
Thanks for making this forum. I’m in 8th grade and doing a project on how much sugar is in the junk food we eat daily and this really helped! THANKS AGAIN!!
lenecen
12.16.2010
“We abstain from ALL flour & sugar. The second we have anything with a trace of either, we get UNCONTRALABLE cravings. I had heard that a certain brand of ranch dressing is abstinate. Well, I was wrong! I couldnt imagine why I couldnt stop eating & obessing about it.”
Are you sure that this is so?
guy thayer
01.31.2011
an alternative to sugar is a plant called stevia, it is 300x sweeter than sugar. u can get it in powder form on line
TheGourmetCoffeeGuy
05.03.2011
It’s really amazing how much sugar is in just about everything you eat, buy at restaurants, canned food, and so on. Your list is excellent and further emphasizes the need to really watch sugar content before consuming foods. Eating sugar or any other food in moderation is the right thing to do but it is hard to do this when food sources contain so much sugar.
Very good post, important to raise awareness about this problem.
Melanie
05.10.2011
Yes, it really is amazing when you stop to take a look at the ingredients of processed foods. I guess the best thing to do is avoid most processed foods.
hannah
09.14.2011
Agave is a slow release fructose syrup from the agave cactus. although not as bad as sugar, still a sugar derivitive. so if you are allergic to sugar or trying to obstain from it then add this to the list.
Melanie
09.14.2011
Thanks Hannah.
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