Sugar is hiding in everything. Your bread, your salad dressing, and even your “healthy” energy bar. Sugar isn’t always obvious when you glance at a label, that’s why learning how to spot it is one of the smartest skills to have. Here are nine ways to catch it before it sneaks onto your plate.
9. Spot the Serving Size Trick
An easy way to get more sugar is by ignoring serving sizes. A bottle of iced tea that looks like a single drink may quietly list two or three servings. This could mean you’re getting double or triple the sugar you first noticed. Before you toss something in the cart, always check “servings per container” and then do a quick mental tally.
8. Use the “Added Sugars” Line as Your Shortcut
The Nutrition Facts label now includes the line “Includes X g Added Sugars.” This little update is your best friend because it separates natural sugars (like those in fruit or milk) from sugars manufacturers add during processing. A flavored yogurt might show 20 grams of total sugar, but if you see that 13 grams are added, then more than half isn’t from fruit. If a single snack has 10–12 grams of added sugar or more, that’s a hefty dose.
7. Learn Sugar’s Many Aliases
Sugar hides under dozens of names that sound more like science experiments and natural sweeteners. Anything ending in -ose (glucose, fructose, maltose), along with words like syrup, molasses, agave nectar, or fruit juice concentrate, all point to added sugar. A tip? If you see two or three of these aliases within the first few ingredients, that’s a sign sugar is doing the heavy lifting in that snack.
6. Don’t Be Fooled by “Natural” or “Organic”
Marketers love dressing sugar up with labels that sound wholesome. But the truth is “organic cane sugar” and “raw sugar” hit your body the same way regular sugar does. The term “natural” isn’t regulated, so you’ll often find products with organic or whole-grain claims still loaded with sweeteners. Ignore the halo words in front of the box and dive straight into the ingredient list.
5. Expect Sugar in Savory Foods
That’s right, sugar isn’t just in desserts. It’s added to savory products to balance flavor or make things more crave-worthy. Think ketchup, barbecue sauce, salad dressing, and even canned soup. Many of these everyday foods contain corn syrup, honey, molasses, or plain sugar. The sweetness is subtle, but the grams add up.
4. Watch Out for Sugar Spread Across the List
Here’s another trick to watch out for: splitting sugar into multiple forms so no single one appears at the top of the ingredient list. Remember, ingredients are listed by weight. A company may scatter sweeteners like glucose syrup, cane sugar, and fruit juice concentrate to make sugar look less dominant. Add them together, and you might just find that sugar outweighs the main ingredient.
3. Know the Labeling Rules on Your Side
Based on the updated FDA rules, all packaged foods must now list “Added Sugars” in both grams and % Daily Value. Single-ingredient sweeteners like honey and maple syrup are allowed to note that their sugars are naturally occurring, but they still need to be declared as added when used in other foods. So if a product doesn’t have an “Added Sugars” line, that’s a red flag.
2. Read Past “No Added Sugar” and “Sugar-Free” Claims
Here’s the truth: “sugar-free” legally means less than half a gram per serving, which adds up if you have multiple servings. “No added sugar” means the manufacturer didn’t add sugar, but they may have used fruit juice concentrate or naturally high-sugar ingredients. Don’t take the claim at face value. Flip it around and check the ingredients.
1. Compare Against Daily Limits
At the end of the day, you need to know your sugar budget. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams (about 6 teaspoons) of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams (about 9 teaspoons) for men. Keep those numbers in mind and mentally tally as you go. This should make judging nutrition labels much easier, too.