Reading Labels Sugar

Written by Tonya Reynolds on Feb 21, 2012 6:19 pm

Reading Labels wasn’t something I did often. My Aunt came to stay with us when I had our son. She is diabetic and she’s always looking at labels and talking about them. She taught me a lot! When you look at a food label you will notice several items listed. You will notice the serving size, servings per container, calories, fats, carbohydrates, sugars, etc.

The first thing I decided to discuss is SUGAR! Because we all seem to love it:) I was extremely amazed when I started looking at different food items in our pantry.

Weights and Measurements

3 teaspoons=1 tablespoon

4 tablespoons=1/4 cup

Every 4 grams of sugar = teaspoon

So, even though I have converted to drinking cans of Dr Pepper instead of fountain sodas, a 12 ounce can has 40 grams of sugar! That’s 10 teaspoons of sugar for one soda can!

That is a lot of sugar for one drink! And that is just one aspect of the label. So, this had me in the pantry looking at some of the things that we have regularly around the house. I was very surprised at what I found.

1 tablespoon of ketchup (or 2 restaurant packets) has 4g of sugar.

1 can of tomato soup has 2.5 servings. One 1/2 cup serving contains 12g of sugar.

An 8 ounce serving of grape juice contains 39g of sugar!

1 tablespoon of grape jelly has 13g of sugar. How is that possible? That is just slightly over 3 teaspoons of sugar. There are 3 tsp in 1 tablespoon. Fruits contain natural sugars. So, in addition to the natural sugar of the grapes, there is also added sugar. Sometimes, the sugar may seem high and it’s actually just the natural sugar of the fruit.

If you noticed above, I mentioned that the can of tomato soup has 2.5 servings. I can eat a whole can of soup with my grilled cheese sandwich. So, I would have to increase my sugar (and everything else on the label) by 1.5. This would have my total sugar intake as 30g. If you are having more than the serving size, make sure to increase the numbers. Since we are able to super size everthing these days, most serving sizes are much smaller than we think.

The last thing to take note of is the different names for sugar. This way you can tell if it is natural sugar or added sugar. Check out the ingredient list to see if you notice any of these added sugars.

sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar

corn syrup, corn syrup solids

brown rice syrup

dextrose

fructose, high fructose corn syrup

fruit juice concentrate

honey

invert sugar

maltodextrin

raw sugar

turbinado sugar

sucrose

Sometimes, there are several sweeteners used in small amounts so manufacturers can spread them out in the ingredient list.

Check out the labels of your favorite foods and drinks. Let me know if anything surprises you about how much sugar is included in our foods and drinks!