When reading food labels, it’s helpful to know how to decipher which ingredients are sugar. While most sugars are refined, some are unrefined (which typically means the sugar retains some minerals). The most nutrient-dense unrefined sugar is molasses, but date sugar, maple syrup, honey and coconut palm sugar also contain nutrients. It is also common for many manufactured products to contain more than one form of sugar. The following label ingredients are all forms of sugar:
- agave
- agave nectar
- barley malt
- barley malt syrup
- beet sugar
- brown rice syrup
- brown sugar
- cane crystals
- cane juice
- cane sugar
- caramel
- coconut sugar
- corn sweetener
- corn syrup
- corn syrup solids
- crystalline fructose
- date sugar
- dehydrated cane juice
- demerara sugar
- dextrin
- dextrose
- diastatic malt
- evaporated cane juice
- fructose
- fruit juice
- fruit juice concentrate
- galactose
- glucose
- glucose solids
- golden syrup
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- inulin
- invert sugar
- jaggery
- lactose
- maltodextrin
- maltose
- malt syrup
- maple syrup
- molasses
- monk fruit (luo han guo)
- muscovado sugar
- palm sugar
- panela
- panocha
- rapadura
- raw cane sugar
- raw sugar
- refined sugar
- rice bran syrup
- rice syrup
- saccharose
- sorghum
- sorghum syrup
- sucanat
- sucrose
- sugar
- syrup
- treacle
- turbinado sugar
- yacon syrup
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