Low-Fat Yogurt Packs More Sugar Than Ice Cream
When you’re trying to eat healthier, low-fat yogurt probably seems like a smart choice. But here’s what most people don’t realize – a single portion of yogurt, around 245g, can contain more than 45g of sugar, which is a huge amount. That’s like eating nearly three tablespoons of pure sugar for breakfast!
Most of us usually think of yogurt as a healthy alternative to ice cream but low fat yogurts actually contain a lot of added sugar to enhance the flavor. The manufacturers strip out the fat, which naturally gives yogurt its creamy texture and satisfying taste, then pump in sugar to make up for the lost flavor. Low-fat yogurt can have half or more of its calories from sugar.
BBQ Sauce Is Basically Sugar With a Side of Meat
That tangy barbecue sauce you love slathering on your ribs? It’s practically liquid candy. Most BBQ sauces get most of their calories from sugar. If you are just putting a thin coating on meat before cooking, then that’s probably a pretty minor addition to your daily intake but if you are going to drown them in sauce before cooking and then add more sauce later, those calories can add up.
The problem gets worse when you look at different sauce varieties. BBQ sauce can be one of the condiments with the highest sugar content — sometimes more than 12 grams per serving. Many contain honey, brown sugar, molasses, high fructose corn syrup or other hidden sugars. Sweet chili sauce, teriyaki sauce and hoisin sauce can be equally high in sugar.
Breakfast Cereals Have Become Sugar Bombs in Disguise
Remember when cereal was supposed to be a healthy way to start your day? Those days are long gone. A study analyzed 1,200 newly launched or reformulated children’s cereals between 2010 and 2023, and what it found was startling. Fat content per serving jumped by 34 percent, sodium levels surged by 32 percent and sugar increased by nearly 11 percent – already exceeding 45 percent of the American Heart Association’s daily recommended limit for kids in a single bowl.
Dr. Uma Naidoo, a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, says sugary cereal is the No. 1 ultra-processed food she avoids. “Breakfast cereals tend to be mostly simple carbohydrates with almost an entire day’s worth of added sugars”. Even cereals that seem healthy can trick you – cereals that say “frosted,” “honey,” “granola clusters,” “coated clusters” or “marshmallows” on the packaging are all going to contain a lot of sugar.
Salad Dressings Turn Your Healthy Greens Into Dessert
You’re doing everything right – loading up on leafy greens and fresh vegetables. Then you drown it all in dressing that’s basically candy in disguise. A two-tablespoon serving of some dressings can add as much as two teaspoons of sugar, nearly 200 calories, and account for about one-quarter of your daily sodium intake.
French-style dressings are particularly sneaky. French-style dressings are often high in sugar because they’re made with ketchup. While this pick from Good & Gather doesn’t contain ketchup, it’s made with tomato paste and added sugar, so you’ll get two teaspoons’ worth of sugar in a two-tablespoon serving. Some balsamic vinaigrettes aren’t much better – the fact that this balsamic is made with a maple syrup base should already clue you into the fact that it’s high in added sugar. One serving gives you 8 grams of sugar—which is more than 30% of your daily recommended added sugar limit.
Protein Bars Are Often Glorified Candy Bars
The health food industry wants you to believe protein bars are the perfect grab-and-go snack. But many of them are just expensive candy bars with a health halo. Whilst some certainly are healthy, there are some by popular brands that are actually high in hidden sugar and saturated fat. “The biggest thing to watch out for when it comes to shop-bought cereal bars (and all kid’s breakfast cereals for that matter) is sugar content,” says nutritionist Mina Khan.
A ‘skinny’ or ‘light’ cereal bar may be filled with oats, high in fibre and low in fat, but the amount of sugar in some of these ‘healthy choices’ is a real shock when you look at the packaging. The worst offenders can be truly shocking – some contain more sugar than actual chocolate bars, but people don’t think twice about eating them because they’re marketed as health food.
Bottled Iced Tea Contains More Sugar Than Soda
You switched from sugary sodas to iced tea thinking you were making a healthier choice. Think again. Many popular teas have a surprising amount of sugar. The leading brands of lemon-flavored iced tea, for example, all have about 32 grams of sugar per bottle. A cup of apple juice has 24 grams.
That means your “healthy” iced tea actually contains more sugar than most sodas. A can of cola can have as much as 9 cubes of sugar – more than the recommended daily limit for adults, but at least everyone knows soda is loaded with sugar. The tea brands are banking on you not checking the label because you think you’re making a smart choice.
Ketchup Turns Every Meal Into a Sugar Rush
It’s just tomatoes, right? Wrong. That innocent-looking ketchup bottle on your table is basically tomato-flavored sugar syrup. At about 4 grams per tablespoon, ketchup on your burger can give you a minor sugar boost. That’s not as much as some other foods on this list, but if you’re trying to cut back on sugar, switch to regular yellow mustard — you’ll get less than 1 gram of sugar per tablespoon.
The problem is that most people use way more than one tablespoon. If you’re the type who drowns your fries in ketchup or puts it on everything from eggs to meatloaf, those sugar grams add up fast. And unlike fruit, ketchup doesn’t come with any fiber to slow down the sugar absorption.
Fast Food Coleslaw Is a Sugar Trap
You order the coleslaw as your “healthy” side dish at the fast-food joint. But that creamy, slightly sweet cabbage salad is anything but healthy. One regular-size side of coleslaw from many popular fast-food places will give you about 15 grams of sugar.
The culprit is the dressing – a mayo-based concoction loaded with sugar to balance out the tangy vinegar. What should be a simple mix of cabbage and carrots becomes a sugar bomb that rivals some desserts. You’d be better off getting the french fries, which at least don’t pretend to be health food.
Granola Bars Masquerade as Health Food
Walk down any grocery aisle and you’ll see granola bars positioned right next to the vitamins and health supplements. The packaging screams “natural” and “wholesome” with images of mountain trails and happy families. But they sound like health food, but many add sweeteners like corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, brown sugar syrup, dextrose, and fructose. Some have a yogurt or chocolate coating, or chocolate chips, which can ramp up the sugars fast — anywhere from 8 to 12 grams per serving.
Even the ones without chocolate coatings can be loaded with hidden sugars. Of the 10 cereal bars, the majority were high in sugar. Worryingly, all of the cereal bars have added sugar, with the exception of the Nakd bar. That “energy boost” you feel after eating one? That’s a sugar rush, not sustained nutrition.
Dried Fruit Concentrates Sugar Into Candy-Like Bites
Dried fruit seems like the perfect healthy snack – it’s just fruit with the water removed, right? But here’s the problem: with all the water taken out, dried fruit has much more sugar by volume than fresh fruits. When you eat a handful of dried cranberries, you’re consuming the sugar equivalent of eating several whole cranberries, but your brain doesn’t register the same fullness signals.
Making matters worse, dried fruit already in the box is typically raisins and other dried fruit that already comes with the cereal is coated with sugar to make it taste extra sweet, so it’s best to add your own dried fruit. What should be nature’s candy becomes actual candy, loaded with both natural fruit sugars and added sweeteners. A small box of raisins can contain as much sugar as a candy bar.
