What Is Added Sugar?

During processing, sugar is added to food to enhance flavor, texture, shelf life or other properties.

Added sugar is usually a mixture of simple sugars such as glucose, fructose or sucrose. Other types, such as galactose, lactose and maltose, are less common.

Unfortunately, food manufacturers often hide the total amount of sugar by listing it under several different names on ingredients lists.

Glucose or Fructose — Does It Matter?

In short, yes. Glucose and fructose — even though they’re very common and often found together — have very different effects on the body.

Glucose can be metabolized by nearly every cell in the body, while fructose is metabolized almost entirely in the liver.

Studies have repeatedly demonstrated the harmful effects of high fructose consumption.

These include insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes.

Although eating any extra sugar should be avoided, it is especially important to minimize your intake of added sugars that are high in fructose.

1. Sugar/Sucrose

Sucrose is the most common type of sugar.

Often called “table sugar,” it is a naturally occurring carbohydrate found in many fruits and plants.

Table sugar is usually extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets. It consists of 50% glucose and 50% fructose, bound together.

Sucrose is found in many foods, including ice cream, candy, pastries, cookies, soda, fruit juices, canned fruit, processed meat, breakfast cereals and ketchup, to name a few.

BOTTOM LINE: Sucrose is also known as table sugar. It occurs naturally in many fruits and plants and is added to all sorts of processed foods. It consists of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

2. High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

High-fructose corn syrup is a widely used sweetener, especially in the US.

It is produced from corn starch via an industrial process and consists of both fructose and glucose.

There are several different types of HFCS, which contain varying amounts of fructose.

Two notable varieties are:

• HFCS 55: This is the most common type of HFCS. It contains 55% fructose and 45% glucose, which makes it similar to sucrose in composition.
• HFCS 90: This form contains 90% fructose.

High-fructose corn syrup is found in many foods, especially in the US. These include soda, breads, cookies, candy, ice cream, cakes, cereal bars and many others.

BOTTOM LINE: High-fructose corn syrup is produced from corn starch. It consists of varying amounts of fructose and glucose, but the most common type contains 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

3. Agave Nectar

Agave nectar, also called agave syrup, is a very popular sweetener produced from the agave plant.

It is commonly used as a “healthy” alternative to sugar because it doesn’t spike blood sugar levels as much as many other sugar varieties.

However, agave nectar contains about 70–90% fructose, and 10–30% glucose.

Given the harmful health effects of excess fructose consumption, agave nectar may be even worse for metabolic health than regular sugar.

It is used in many “health foods,” such as fruit bars, sweetened yogurts and cereal bars.

BOTTOM LINE: Agave nectar or syrup is produced from the agave plant. It contains 70–90% fructose and 10–30% glucose. It may be even more harmful for health than regular sugar.

4. Other Sugars with Glucose and Fructose

Most added sugars and sweeteners contain both glucose and fructose.
Here are a few examples:

1. Beet sugar
2. Blackstrap molasses
3. Brown sugar
4. Buttered syrup
5. Cane juice crystals
6. Cane sugar
7. Caramel
8. Carob syrup
9. Castor sugar
10.  Coconut sugar
11.  Confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)
12.  Date sugar
13.  Demerara sugar
14.  Evaporated cane juice
15.  Florida crystals
16.  Fruit juice
17.  Fruit juice concentrate
18.  Golden sugar
19.  Golden syrup
20.  Grape sugar
21.  Honey
22.  Icing sugar
23.  Invert sugar
24.  Maple syrup
25.  Molasses
26.  Muscovado sugar
27.  Panela sugar
28.  Raw sugar
29.  Refiner’s syrup
30.  Sorghum syrup
31.  Sucanat
32.  Treacle sugar
33.  Turbinado sugar
34.  Yellow sugar

BOTTOM LINE: These sugars all contain varying amounts of both glucose and fructose.

5. Sugars with Glucose

These sweeteners contain glucose, either pure or combined with sugars other than fructose (such as other glucose units or galactose):

1. Barley malt
2. Brown rice syrup
3. Corn syrup
4. Corn syrup solids
5. Dextrin
6. Dextrose
7. Diastatic malt
8. Ethyl maltol
9. Glucose
10.  Glucose solids
11.  Lactose
12.  Malt syrup
13.  Maltodextrin
14.  Maltose
15.  Rice syrup

BOTTOM LINE: These sugars are comprised of glucose, either on its own or with sugars other than fructose.

6. Sugars with Fructose Only

These two sweeteners contain only fructose:

1. Crystalline fructose
2. Fructose

BOTTOM LINE: Pure fructose is simply called fructose or crystalline fructose.

7. Other Sugars

There are a few added sugars that contain neither glucose nor fructose. They are less sweet and less common, but are sometimes used as sweeteners:

1. D-ribose
2. Galactose

BOTTOM LINE: D-ribose and galactose are not as sweet as glucose and fructose but are also used as sweeteners.

Agave nectar

Barbados sugar

Barley malt

Barley malt syrup

Beet sugar

Brown sugar

Buttered syrup

Cane juice

Cane juice crystals

Cane sugar

Caramel

Carob syrup

Castor sugar

Coconut palm sugar

Coconut sugar

Confectioner’s sugar

Corn sweetener

Corn syrup

Corn syrup solids

Date sugar

Dehydrated cane juice

Demerara sugar

Dextrin

Dextrose

Evaporated cane juice

Free-flowing brown sugars

Fructose

Fruit juice

Fruit juice concentrate

Glucose

Glucose solids

Golden sugar

Golden syrup

Grape sugar

HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup)

Honey

Icing sugar

Invert sugar

Malt syrup

Maltodextrin

Maltol

Maltose

Mannose

Maple syrup

Molasses

Muscovado

Palm sugar

Panocha

Powdered sugar

Raw sugar

Refiner’s syrup

Rice syrup

Saccharose