Sugar can be found in everything these days, and cutting back on sugars is often the best solution. How to do that, you will read in this article. But using sugar responsibly also largely comes down to knowing what you eat. Therefore, in this blog we discuss 6 misconceptions about sugars. Know what you eat, and support your health!

1: There is no such thing as 'healthy sugar'

Healthy recipes often substitute regular granulated sugar for products such as honey or maple syrup because it is said to be "healthier. Also, sugars in fruit are said to be less harmful. Unfortunately, this is nonsense: there is no distinction in sugar being healthy or not. Sugars are sugars and are all processed the same way in our bodies.

So why is it better to eat a banana than a bar of chocolate? Simple: there are foods that do contain sugars, but they also contain many other nutrients that are healthy and actually contribute to your health. Think vitamins, minerals and fiber. In this case, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Products with added sugars often do not contain these kinds of good nutrients. The sugars in fruit is also a fine amount of sugar for your body to process, if you are otherwise eating sugar-free.

2: The term "sugar-free" does not mean there is no sugar in it 

On numerous products in the supermarket, the term "sugar-free" is listed. However, this often does not mean that the product contains no sugar at all. There are national guidelines that indicate when the term sugar-free may be used. That guideline is that per 100 grams or 100 milliliters of product, there should be a maximum of 0.5 grams of sugar in the product. In the case of the term "low sugar," it refers to a maximum of 5 grams of sugar per 100 grams or 2.5 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters of product. Also, the term "no added sugars" says little. This term means that the manufacturer may not add sugars themselves, but many products contain sugar by themselves, such as dairy and fruit. So these claims can be very misleading. 

3. The light variety is not necessarily healthier

For soft drinks in particular, the term "light" or "diet" is used quite often and was hugely popular for a number of years. A product may be called "light" if its sugar, fat or calorie content is at least 30 percent lower than that of a comparable product. So you can see that there is a lot of wiggle room here for a manufacturer. 30 percent less sugar does not automatically mean 30 percent less calories, or vice versa. Moreover, many light products contain other harmful and unhealthy ingredients and contain little or no healthy nutrients.

4. Terms like 'healthy,' 'fresh' and 'artisanal' mean nothing 

Whereas there are still guidelines attached to the use of the terms light or sugar-free, there are also certain terms that manufacturers may just put on their packaging without doing anything for it. Think of terms like 'fresh', 'artisan' and 'healthy'. These are all relative, difficult-to-measure terms and therefore are free to use. However, a fresh fruit juice is simply made in a factory, not hand-pressed that morning with fresh produce from the vegetable garden. Know what you are eating, and above all, use common sense in some cases.

5. The pictures on a package don't say anything

Do you buy fruit juice that shows a very large mango, thinking it must be pure mango juice? Alas: the images on the packaging do not automatically reflect the ingredient most commonly used in the product. For example, the ingredients of "mango juice" from a well-known juice manufacturer look like this: fruit juice from concentrate (apple, orange 38%, mango 10%, white grape, lemon). Only 10 percent of the product consists of mango, even though that mango is pictured life-size on the pack. Do not fall for this.

6. All claims are marketing tactics

As for the texts and claims that appear on a product's packaging, you can assume with all claims that they are intended to convince you to buy the product. These are texts that a marketing team has thought long and hard about. These texts are not meant to inform you as a customer in a transparent way. For that you have to go to the fine print, or label.

Reading labels

However, those labels can be tricky to decipher, which is why we like to share some tips.

• The ingredients are listed in order from most to least amount present.
• In the ingredients, you always have to look for the terms used for sugar. Anything ending in -ose (fructose, lactose, dextrose) refers to sugar, as does anything ending in -syrup or -syrup. The further these ingredients are at the front of the list, the more there is in the product.
• The amount of sugar is listed under the heading carbohydrates, which often uses "of which sugars. Here you can see how many grams of total carbohydrates are sugars.
• Calculate how many sugar cubes are in a product? One sugar cube is equivalent to four grams of sugar.