Why does everything have bloody sugar in it?

[Nousernameforme]

I'm sat here trying to do the online shop. I know our sugar intake is way higher than it should be so trying to be more aware of the sugar levels in things.

I'm looking at breakfast alternatives as two of mine won't touch porridge and one only eats weetabix with sugar on it. I thought i could make up some breakfast muffins with sausages or do some eggs and hash browns. Sausages have sugar in ffs nearly .5 of a gram per why? and hashbrowns have just over 1 gram each.

Now this seems like negligible amounts but if little ones are supposed to stay under 19g a day and you've not even touched fruit yet it seems like an impossible task.

Don't even talk to me about bread and milk ffs.

I with you. The oddest things have sugar don't they (i mean sausages!!?!).

Noticed it was in some crisps too once - a savory product in which you expect excess salt but not sugar.

I know the nation has a sweet tooth but does seem pointless.

I hate that if they reduce sugar in things, they then fill it with sweeteners a instead. Why can't they just slowly reduce the sugar without replacing it with other sweet crap?

Don't even talk to me about bread and milk

The amount of sugar in ordinary bread is horrifying, I agree. I make my own now and have done for a long time so both the sugar and salt are much reduced. However, they can't be done away with altogether because sugar feeds the yeast and helps to preserve the bread (while salt kills the yeast at the right moment, and also helps to preserve the bread). I'm guessing that the presence of so much sugar in so many other foods is not just about sweetness/palatability but also about extending the shelf life.

So here's the ingredients for a "Richmond Thick Sausage":

Pork (42%), Water, Pork Fat, Rusk (Wheat), Wheat Starch, Soya Protein, Less than 2%: Flavourings, Salt, Stabilisers: Diphosphates, Guar Gum, Antioxidants: Vitamins C & E, Preservative: Sodium Metabisulphite, Colour: Carmine, A vegetable based ingredient that helps keep our sausages succulent, ** This just keeps them fresh for longer!, Casing made from Beef Collagen

No added sugar at all. Some sausages will add a very small amount of sugar, it's a binder and a browner - it makes the sausage go brown. The amount though is tiny, the 0.5g on the nutrition information is not the amount of sugar added, it's the amount of sugar in the sausage from everything, which is either the binder or the case depending on their sources. For most sausages the binder "sugars" will be the vast majority compared to any added for browning.

I hate that if they reduce sugar in things, they then fill it with sweeteners a instead

I agree. I was buying squash the other day in M&S, one of the few supermarkets that still sells squash without sweetners in, that's not the expensive artisan version.

They had two flavours without sweetners in and SEVEN with sweetners in. I stood there looking thinking 'oh lemon and lime looks nice' bastard sweetners, what about blackcurrant, no, can't have that either, ooh cranberry, no. I just bought orange in the end. Fine, but annoyed that the choice has been taken away.

The sugar in Richmond sausages will probably be in the rusk, it is a slightly sweet biscuit after all.

I wouldn't have thought there would be as much sugar in sausages with a higher meat content, because there's less rusk.

Unfortunately, they add sugar when they reduced the fat content! Apparently we don't like the taste if they don't.

As a diabetic, I completely agree. It's easy for people to say 'don't eat sugary things', but not so easy to do it when almost everything has sugar in them.

Btw, have you seen tinned tomatoes? The sugar content varies widely.

I wouldn't have thought there would be as much sugar in sausages with a higher meat content, because there's less rusk.

Here's Tesco Finest traditional Pork:

INGREDIENTS: Pork (97%), Salt, Potato Starch, Water, Sage, White Pepper, Coriander, Nutmeg, Preservative(Sodium Metabisulphite).
Filled into natural pork casings.

No sugar added in the ingredients, but still 0.6g/100g - The sugar added to sausages is tiny, it's all the binders.

Sure added sugars to food is a problem, but it's a bit wrong to highlight foods where there aren't any added sugars.

Sausages are full of fillers and hash browns are potato so a carb. I'd stick to bacon and eggs, mushrooms, haloumi. If you don't want to cut out all carbs then go low GI. So things like wholemeal spelt toast, home made muesli without the dried fruit/sugar/honey.

I agree sugar is really hard to cut out! It's definitely something that takes time and a lot of learning along the way.

Those sausages - the third ingredient is potato starch. The clue is in the first few ingredients, these will be the main ingredients.

This is the most frustrating thing for me recently..
I'm now my grandfathers primary carer, who has diabetes.

Everything has bloody sugar in it! And not small amounts..ridiculous amounts

Btw, have you seen tinned tomatoes? The sugar content varies widely.

I have never seen a tinned tomato can which adds sugar, the sugar content in the nutrition data amount varies widely because of differing amounts of tomato and tomato juice, the high tomato content ones have more sugar in typically (ie less water)

Those sausages - the third ingredient is potato starch. The clue is in the first few ingredients, these will be the main ingredients.

Yet we know that ingredient is less than 1.5% of the total (since it's the 3rd ingredient and the first is 97% of the total)

@sirfredfredgeorge yes and? My point was the sugar content isn't coming from the pork. And anyone who's learning about sugar needs to know how to read ingredients.

But wherever the sugar comes from it still has to be counted surely. Or are say sugar from milk fruit and veg a fill your boots type of sugar? Should we only count added sugars?

Added sugar is the problem. Weetabix is fine in itself, it's the added sugar that is spooned on top that's the problem.

The "sugar" in milk is lactose, actually part of the milk itself. Not all sugars are equal.

I ignore natural sugar and just avoid the added sugar both natural and artificial where we can. Quite easy if you go for whole foods the majority of the time.

The easiest way to reduce sugar intake in your household would be to get rid of the sugar bowl and spoon!

Anything processed is going to have added stuff, whether is be sugars, sweeteners, salt, fat,etc.

We make most of our food, even have a bread maker, so I don't worry too much about the odd shortcut (I refuse to make my own pastry as life is too short lol). But most food that isn't made from scratch will have extra sugar or salt etc on it.

Also, find a decent butcher as most will make their own sausages. Will be much higher meat content so less crap in it. My butchers make ace sausages, no idea how much sugar etc is in them but I'm sure they'd tell me if I ask (I know the salt is quite surprisingly low as I enquired for when my son was younger).

Most foods have naturally occuring sugars, you have to remember that carbs are essentially just non-soluble sugar.

Sorry OP are do you mean you feel sugar is in everything because it has a % (of any amount) in the nutritional information or because it's listed in the ingredients? So the sausages you refer to do they actually list sugar as an ingredient?

Unless you are diabetic, you can aim to reduce the amount of added sugar in order to reduce you sugar intake. Learn the names it can be listed as in ingredients and keep an eye out. Anything with it listed at the start of the ingredient list had a lot of sugar (You can still use the nutritional information - rule of thumb if it's over 10g of sugars per 100g it is high sugar.)

Unfortunately when it comes to the Weetabix and milk your children are eating it isn't the milk to blame. You need to cut the sugar they are adding - which I appreciate is a daunting task.