Healthy real food without added sugar

[Desnol]

I just discovered, to my horror, that frozen chicken breast contains 1.5% added dextrose (sugar). I put in so much effort to stop buying ready meals and cook all food from the raw ingredients, and now it turns out that frozen chicken pieces are not pure chicken, but chicken pieces injected with sugar. What's going on?

I'm looking after a diabetic family member, so hidden sugar additives DO matter. Do I have to start keeping chickens in the back garden to get healthy food?

Is there any supermarket which sells frozen chicken pieces without additives?

Buy frozen chicken breast or buy fresh chicken and freeze it

Don't buy cheap meat.

To be honest there probably not even a gram of sugar added via the dextrose into the food, so I doubt it would have a huge effect. I would be more bothered about the antibiotics pumped into the cheaper meats than the small quantity of sugar. It’s hidden in lots of things so if you’re cooking for a diabetic I’d start reading every label and use as fresh food as possible, make sure they don’t have artificial sweeteners in tea or coffee because it’s worse than sugar for health.

@BF2748

To be honest there probably not even a gram of sugar added via the dextrose into the food, so I doubt it would have a huge effect. I would be more bothered about the antibiotics pumped into the cheaper meats than the small quantity of sugar. It’s hidden in lots of things so if you’re cooking for a diabetic I’d start reading every label and use as fresh food as possible, make sure they don’t have artificial sweeteners in tea or coffee because it’s worse than sugar for health.

Thanks for the pointer re antibiotics. I've never seen it on labels, is there some way I can tell that chicken has been given antibiotics?

Sadly, fresh food isn't an option, except on the one day per week when I manage to get to the supermarket. I'm on my own, and have to care for two pretty helpless people, so I have to rely on the freezer. I'm a bit useless when it comes to freezing things, so I only freeze food which I have cooked myself, e.g, casseroles, or food which I bought already frozen. I read about blanching before freezing, but have never tried it. Would that get rid of the antibiotics?

I've stopped buying ready meals, or anything that comes in a packet, a while ago, everything is cooked from the raw ingredients, that's why I was so surprised to discover that dextrose is injected into raw chicken breast.

Thanks for sweeteners advice. I did try him on pure stevia powder for a week or so. He hated the taste, but has now got used to foods which are not sweetened, he doesn't miss it at all.

Not all frozen chicken has added dextrose. Where are you buying it from?

I didn't keep the packaging, and it was in the freezer for a month before I used it, but it would have been bought either in Asda or Sainsbury's.

I've checked the contents of my freezer, and the frozen thighs and legs are all OK, zero carb content. It's only chicken breast pieces that contains injected dextrose.

Thighs and legs are perfectly good for casseroles, and we can live without roast chicken breast until I find a healthy source.