THE SUGAR ALPHABET (61 different names and counting)

• Agave
• Agave Nectar
• Agave Syrup
• Barbados Sugar
• Beet Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Brownulated Sugar
• Buttered Syrup
• Cane Juice
• Cane Sugar
• Cane Syrup
• Caramel
• Carob Syrup
• Castor/ Caster Sugar
• Coco Sugar
• Coco Sap
• Coconut Sugar
• Confectioners Sugar
• Crystalline Fructose
• Date Sugar
• Demerara Sugar
• Dextran
• Dehydrated Cane Juice
• Evaporated Cane Juice
• Evaporated Cane Syrup
• Evaporated Sugar Cane
• Florida Crystals
• Free Flowing Brown Sugar
• Fructose
• Fructose Crystals
• Fruit Juice
• Fruit Juice Concentrate
• Fruit Sugar
• Glazing Sugar
• Golden Sugar
• Golden Syrup
• Granulated Sugar
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
• Honey
• Icing Sugar
• Invert Sugar
• King’s Syrup
• Levulose
• Maple Sugar
• Maple Syrup
• Molasses
• Muscovado
• Palm Sugar
• Panocha
• Powdered Sugar
• Raw Sugar
• Refiners’ Syrup
• Sorghum
• Sorghum Syrup
• Sucanat
• Sucrose
• Superfine Sugar
• Table Sugar
• Treacle
• Turbinado Sugar
• White Sugar
• Yellow Sugar

Not sugar but if I were you I would also avoid:

Sugar Alcohols:

• Erythritol
• Isomalt
• Maltitol
• Mannitol
• Sorbitol
• Xylitol

Artificial Sugar Substitutes:

• Acesulfame Potassium
• Aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal)
• Cyclamate
• Neotame (Nutrasweet)
• Saccharin (Sweet n’ Low)
• Stevia (Truvia)
• Sucralose (Splenda)

The Good News List!

These sound suspicious, but are more or less fine. They aren’t all necessarily health foods mind you, but they are sweetening agents that contain no fructose.

• Barley Malt
• Barley Malt Syrup
• Corn Syrup
• Corn Syrup Solids
• Dextrose
• Diastatic Malt
• Diatase
• Ethyl Maltol
• Galactose
• Glucose
• Glucose Solids
• Grape Sugar
• Isomaltose
• Lactose
• Malt Sugar
• Maltose
• Maltodextrin
• Rice Syrup
• Tapioca
• Tapioca Syrup

No Sugar Alternatives-

When baking, you’ll need to do some experimenting- to get the right consistency, browning and degree of sweetness- but there are some ingredients that work well in place of fructose sweeteners. All of these alternatives are probably on the shelves of your local health food store- if not ask for them!

Instead of:                                                                                     Try:

White sugar/ powdered sugar…                                  Dextrose

Honey/Maple Syrup/Molasses…                                 Barley Malt Syrup, Brown Rice Syrup, Glucose Syrup, Corn Syrup (not High Fructose)

 

Recommended Products-

Careful! Sugar hides in the most unlikely of places. Many of the typical food products that hide sugar aren’t sweet at all: salad dressings, condiments, soups, crackers, sauces. Other times, a product that doesn’t have to contain sugar, just almost always does- like cold cereal or hot drink mixes. Often, the products of the “health food” section are just as bad, if not worse, perpetrators of sugar-madness than those on the regular supermarket shelves. Remember: terms like “organic fruit juice,” “agave” or “evaporated cane syrup” sound healthier, but are really just crunchy-code for the “S” word (Sugar!!), which is to say the “F” word (Fructose!!!)

In many cases we had to make our own No Sugar versions of things that simply couldn’t be found at the store (mayonnaise, salad dressing, chicken broth) or we went without (ketchup.) However, here are a few trusty products we came to rely on during our Year of No Sugar, and since:

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Tomato Sauce

• Don Pepino Pizza Sauce

Crackers:

• Triscuits
• Carr’s Table Water Crackers

Cold Cereals:

• Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nuggets Cereal
• Ezekiel 4:9
• Barbara’s Shredded Wheat
• Grape Nuts (try hot Grape Nuts too! recipe here)
• Familia Swiss Muesli (make sure it’s the one that says “No Added Sugar”

Hot Drink Mix

• Ovaltine (make sure to get the European Formula– it can be mail-ordered from the Vermont Country Store)

Other:

• GoRaw Super Cookies (available at health food stores)
• Smarties (Yes Virginia! There is a fructose/artificial-sweetener/sugar-alcohol-free candy! Sweetened with dextrose.)