Label Reading- Sugar

Our food labels do not distinguish between naturally occurring and added sugars. In 2006, the USDA released a database publicizing the content of added sugar in various foods. If you don't have this little 52 page booklet handy with you at all of your grocery shopping extravaganzas, then what do you do? You can do your best to analyze the product. Where do sugars (all meanings of sugars included) come from? A non-exhaustive list includes dairy, fruit, table sugar, honey, molasses, etc. What I often recommend is looking at the ingredient list, not just the nutrition label itself. For example, if you pick up a plain yogurt, there will be a number next to sugar on the food label. This doesn't really tell me too much; however, if you scour the ingredient list the only words you will find are some sort of milk product. There is no added or table sugar in the product; just naturally occurring sugar, which is lactose in this case. Another point of attention is that ingredients are listed from greatest quantity to least quantity. So if sugar is listed first, you know that out of all the ingredients in this product sugar makes up the majority. On the other hand, if sugar is listed last in the ingredient list, you know it is the least abundant. Unfortunately, you don't know the exact measure or quantity. Here's hoping to changes in the future for more transparency and accuracy with our labels.