What are “Added” Sugars?
This week I was asked if Naked Juice was nutritious because it had so much sugar in it. I hadn’t heard of Naked Juice but just having the word “juice” in it means the product contained juice and was not one of the many unhealthy “fruit drinks” on the market. I immediately Googled Naked Juice and the front of the label says clearly, “ NO ADDED SUGAR ”. I didn’t have to look any further to figure out they didn’t add sugar to this product. So why was the caller confused? The food label noted, “Sugars 28 grams”, yet the product didn’t have one crystal of added sugar. So why does the label say, “Sugars 28 grams” (which would be a lot of added sugar) because the juice contains the natural sugar, fructose. Two naturally occurring sugars are fructose found in fruits and lactose found in milk. These aren’t added to fruits and milk but are naturally found in them. In contrast, added sugars are any...