Sugar-free food: The truth behind the ‘no sugar’ label

Do you often walk by the rows of sweet treats in a supermarket and grab the ones labeled ‘sugar-free'? Most individuals who are health conscious often tend to do that. And while you relax and gulp it down, you are awestruck at the sweet flavour of the drink despite having the words "sugar-free" marked in bold. Does this ever make you stop and ponder whether sugar-free drinks are truly free of sugar, and if so, then where does the sweet flavour come from? Here’s decoding the mystery behind no-sugar drinks.

Is sugar-free food really devoid of sugar?

While those who are health conscious often fall for the marketing gimmick where ‘sugar-free' is printed and bold and offered to your eyes, they often forget to read between the lines. Even if you are grabbing a sugar-free drink, the best way to determine whether you should drink it or not is to check the ingredient label at the back. What one often misses in the spur of excitement is that sugar-free doesn’t mean ‘no sugar.' It may mean using very little sugar, which is often below the standard serving amount. Moreover, even if it may not have direct sugar, it may have ingredients that act as sugar once it enters the body.

This would then make you wonder, where does the sweet flavour come from? This can be contributed to by natural sweeteners like stevia or artificial ones like sucralose, and at times sugar alcohols like sorbitol also play a part. While they may have fewer calories, in the long run, they tend to cause other health problems. Moreover, even if sugar isn’t added as an ingredient, sometimes, sugar is a natural component of the existing ingredients.

Further, a point that is often overlooked is that, in excitement, people tend to consume or binge eat these sugar-free products. This leads to the accumulation of ‘less sugar’ in each product into proper sugar measurements, which in turn degrades the body functions.

Thus, sugar-free definitely helps to manage the sweet levels of those who are calorie conscious or those who suffer from diabetes, but even then, it is an area that should be treated with caution.

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