Quit sugar but still spooning teaspoons of honey into your morning chai? You’re probably not as sugar-free as you think.
While many health food stores and bloggers use dates, honey and agave to sweeten their bliss balls to smoothies, these “natural sweeteners” are anything but sugar-free.
Feel like you’ve been caught in the “no-sugar” trap? Here’s what sugar-free actually means.
What we mean when we say “no sugar”.
Despite the name, our I Quit Sugar: 8-Week Program focuses on giving up a specific type of sugar – fructose. That’s because while other sugars (like glucose, maltose and lactose) are safe to eat in moderation, fructose is not.
Fructose is addictive. It makes us fat and even sick.
So, where is fructose found? One of the worst offenders is sucrose (good ol’ table sugar), which is made up of 50 per cent glucose and 50 per cent fructose. But it’s also lurking in other sugar substitutes, too.
What food labels mean when they say “no added sugar”.
Sorry to break it to you, but many foods labelled “no added sugar” are still packed with fructose.
Take no-added-sugar apple juice. A single glass can contain more sugar than a can of Coke!
We’re not saying don’t eat fruit! The problem is when fruit is juiced, the fibre and other good stuff is stripped out, meaning the fructose hits your body all at once. Or think about it this way: you’d never eat as many apples as it takes to make a glass of juice in once go!
Other misleading “no-added-sugar” labels include those on dried fruit (which strips the water from the fruit, leaving a package of sugar), muesli studded with raisins, jams and fruit flavoured yoghurts.
What health stores mean when they say “no added sugar”.
Raw. Vegan. No refined sugar. Your “healthy” carrot cake may be delicious, but it’s certainly not sugar-free. A lot of these treats are sweetened with dates, honey and maple syrup, which, unfortunately, all come packed with fructose. In fact, agave is 90 per cent fructose!
And all these fructose-filled sweeteners will have exact same damaging effects on the body as traditional refined sugar does.
Looking for some something sweet without the added dates? Try our Fruit-Free Bliss Balls. Our I Quit Sugar: 8- Week Program is also packed with recipes, and we promise they’ll all be genuinely sugar-free!
We originally published this article in February 2016. We updated it in February 2017.
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