Even if you make your own baby food, there may be times that you will choose to buy a commercially made snack for your little one. And when you do, you will probably want to check the labeling to make sure that it doesn’t contain added sugar.
But sugar often comes disguised with many different names… so are you sure that you can truly spot it in a list of ingredients?
When checking the labels on food packaging, the ingredients that appear first, second and third in the list are contained in that food in large quantities. The problem with sugar is that it can appear on the ingredient list more than once, under its various names. This is misleading – and a food that may seem to be low in sugar could actually be far higher in sugar than you realize.
Here is a list of the commonly used alternative names for sugar that you should look out for, helping you make healthy choices for your baby:
- sucrose
- dextrose
- corn sweetener
- corn syrup
- fructose
- levulose
- fruit juice concentrate
- glucose
- high-fructose corn syrup
- lactose
- syrup
- maltose
- barley malt
- invert sugar
- grape sugar
- grape sweetener
- sorbitol
- mannitol
- sorghum
- maple syrup
- polydextrose
- saccharin
- sucralose
- sucaryl
- demerera
- evaporated cane juice
- muscovado
- sucanat
- turbinado
- unrefined cane sugar
- whole cane
- yellow-D