By Elena Voropay

Think of your favourite foods. Some of them may be sweet, others are not. But chances are that they all contain some sort of sugar. If you try to limit your sugar and carb intake in order to lose weight, chances are that you are still getting more that you know of. Cakes, candy, soft drinks obviously are sweetened with sugars, so simply avoiding these may be a no-brainer. But sauces, cereals, yoghurts, sugar-free baked goods, alcoholic beverages, and even meats are filled with sugars that you may not be aware of. These hidden sugars may actually be the reason why you can't lose those extra kilos.

Sugars are carbohydrates, one of the most important sources of energy for the body. Sugar is needed for proper brain function and physical activity where it can be used as valuable fuel. If we don't use sugar right away, we store it in the liver and muscles as glycogen for later use. The problem happens when we eat too much of it. Unfortunately, our storage space is limited, and anything left over turns to fat. Naturally, many foods contains sugar and carbohydrates. These include fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes and dairy. Eating these foods will give you energy along with plenty of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants, fibre and amino acids. However, the story changes when these foods are processed and mixed with other ingredients, packaged and transported to the supermarkets to be sold as convenience foods. Their natural nutrient density is lost with processing. Manufacturers often compensate the loss with adding other natural and artificial fillers to make up for the taste of these foods.

Why Sugars Are Added

Sweetness is not the only reason for manufacturers adding sugars to various products. Simple carbohydrates and sugars can improve the texture and colour of foods. For example, they make cookies and biscuits crispier, breads softer, cakes more moist and yoghurts smoother. Additional simple carbohydrates balance the salty and sour taste and blend the consistency of sauces, gravies, spreads and dips. Added sugars make foods more attractive to the eye and appealing to the palate.

Tricky Labels

If you read the list of ingredients on any packaged food, you may not see the word 'sugar' per se. This is because it is often listed under other names that still signify sugar's presence. The names used in the listings include:

Brown sugar Beet sugar Cane sugar Confectioner's sugar Crystallized cane juice Dextrose Fructose Evaporated cane juice High-fructose corn syrup Honey Invert sugar Maltodextrin (or dextrin) Maple syrup Molasses Raw sugar Sucrose (table sugar or white sugar) Turbinado sugar

Incidentally, many people think that honey, molasses, brown and raw sugars are healthier than processed white sugar. While these may contain slightly more minerals than the over-processed white stuff, they all have similar properties and provide the same amount of energy per gram (4 calories).

'No added sugar' on a label doesn't necessarily mean that the food doesn't contain it. A lot of foods are naturally sweet thus contain sugars. It may mean that no additional sugar was added to the product, but the food may still be loaded with sugars and other carbohydrates.

Learning to read nutritional labels and ingredients lists can be a very valuable skill. Ingredients are usually listed in the order relative to their amount by weight - the greater the amount, the higher up it will appear on the list. But manufacturers are tricky - they figured out that consumers are smart enough to read nutritional labels and started putting small amounts of different sugars to the product. That way, no single kind of sugar is the main ingredient, but if you add them all up, sugar in the product may outweigh anything else.

Sugars and Weight Gain

Sugars themselves don't directly make you gain weight. Weight gain results when you regularly eat more calories than you burn, regardless of where the calories come from - protein, fat or carbohydrates. So, why is it so easy to gain weight with sugars? Because they lack in nutrients and fibre, are calorically dense. When you eat sugars, it is difficult to find satiety and easy to eat too much. What's more, sugar may stimulate your appetite and raise your blood sugar levels too high. When the blood sugar drops, you find yourself even hungrier reaching for more foods high in sugar and calories.

Hidden Sugars In Foods

Low-Fat Yoghurt, Pudding and Ice Cream

These are often advertised as low-fat healthier versions of fatty desserts. If you compare the full-fat and low-fat variations of the same food, you will most likely notice the difference in taste, texture and palatability. There is nothing wrong with stripping away the fat from dairy, but most manufacturers replace the fat with additional sugar to make it taste better, increase shelf life and keep you reaching for more. Foods that lack fat are not as satisfying as they are quickly broken down and absorbed making you hungry soon after you've eaten. Fat and protein slow down the process of digestion keeping the nutrients within your system longer, thus you don't become hungry as soon. Yoghurt, pudding and ice cream are not solid and have no fibre, which makes it so easy to gobble on huge servings without even noticing it. So, if you want to enjoy the benefits of dairy, choose natural yoghurts without any added sugars, make your own puddings with rice and berries and try real fruit instead of ice cream. Even though all these naturally have sugars in them, the amount you consume is usually much less, and you would get other additional nutrients from the new choices.

Cereals

Many cereals that have a 'healthy' reputation are coated with plenty of sugar, especially if they are sold as low-fat and fat-free. Whole grains themselves may be tasteless, so it is all the additional components that you find in a box of cereal that make these taste good and keep you reaching for more. Fat is added for texture and palatability, and when it is missing from the cereal to make it healthier, additional sugars are added for crunchiness, sweetness and appealing golden-brown look. If you think cereals are very nutritious giving you complex carbs and no fat, you are likely to super-size your serving. The sweet calories can easily pile up raising blood sugar and insulin levels - the main reasons for weight gain. To make it healthy for you, check the list of ingredients on the cereal box. Or better go for the real old-fashioned whole grains. Spice them up with cinnamon and ginger or a few drops of vanilla and you won't even miss the sugar.

Low-Carb and Sugar-Free Foods

Foods listed as 'Low-carb' or 'Sugar-free' are often sweetened with sugar alcohols, or polyols. Sugar alcohols are chemically alcohols, but are derived from sugar molecules. Being only partially digested, sugar alcohols don't raise blood sugar levels to the same extent as regular sugar, but still provide calories and have shown to increase appetite. Besides, thinking that a particular food is sugar-free may cause you eat more of that food. And that means eating more calories which eventually will contribute to weight gain.

Alcoholic Beverages

Drinking many alcoholic beverages is detrimental to your health and waist line. Depending on what you choose to drink, the range of ingested calories can go from 150 to 700 calories per serving. Alcohol itself is not a sugar but a macronutrient of its own providing almost twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates - 7 and 4 respectively. And on top of the calories you get from alcohol, most drinks are mixed with syrups and sugars to make them taste irresistibly delicious. Beer, wine, margaritas, martinis and brandy all contain additional sugars. Besides, alcohol may increase your appetite so you end up eating more when you drink.

Deli Meats and Imitation Crab

Many commercially available deli meats are high in fat, salt and sugar. Watch out for devon, spam, and processed meat rolls. These meats are lower in protein, vitamins and minerals than natural selection. Practically, what you are getting is sugar, starch, fat, processed meat pieces and salt converted into something that resembles meat or seafood. Imitation crab, for example, has almost four times more carbs and twice as many sugars as protein found in it because he main ingredients here are starch and sugar. If you still decide on deli meats, examine the nutrition panel. The less precessed the meat - the less sugar it has. Better choose low-fat natural meat and fish which contain no carbs or sugar and provide the highest quality protein. Add herbs and spices to fresh cuts - and you have the best texture and flavour imaginable.

Sauces, Gravies, Spreads and Dips

Manufacturers add sugars to these to balance the acidity of tomatoes, sweeten starches that make up the texture, and tingle your taste buds increasing appetite so you will eat more. The secret to most delicious dishes lies in their sauces. While pure steak is purely protein, gravy that you add has a lot of sugar and starch. Seemingly salty spreads and dips always have some form of sugar to complete the essence. Make your own sauces by mixing vegetables, herbs and spices and enjoy the natural aromas.

Avoiding Hidden Culprits

- Cut back on the total amount of sweet foods eaten and learn to appreciate food that is not so sweet

- Try to avoid processed foods as most of them have more sugar, salt and fat than you really need or want

- Choose the most natural foods like vegetables, whole grains, fruit, lean meats and natural dairy without additional ingredients

- Cut back on soft drinks, cordials, and juices as they all contain a lot of sugar and lack important fibre and micronutrients

- Learn to read labels on pre-packaged foods and look out for the hidden sugars in them. Ingredients are listed in the descending order of proportion relative to other ingredients: if sugar is one of the first ingredients, the food consists mostly of sugar.

- Experiment with adding different spices instead of sugar to enhance the flavour of your favourite desserts. Try sprinkling ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg powder to your cereals, add a touch of vanilla to puddings and cakes, spice up coffee with allspice and mace, or boost the flavour of all foods with chilli.