My GP goes “you need to watch your blood sugar.” Alright then. Cut out the Hobnobs. Skip pudding.
What an absolute muppet I was.
Sugar’s in everything. EVERYTHING. That brown bread I was so chuffed about switching to? Sugar. The ham? Sugar. The mustard? SUGAR IN THE BLOODY MUSTARD.
Your blood sugar’s probably bouncing around like a pinball because of this stuff and you don’t even know it.
Hidden Sugars (Or: How Food Companies Are Having a Laugh)
They can’t just write “sugar” can they? Too scary. So it’s “evaporated cane juice” or “dried glucose syrup.” Sounds dead scientific.
WHO says keep added sugars under 10% of daily calories. One Müller Corner and you’re nearly halfway there before breakfast. Ridiculous.
Sometimes there’s actual reasons for it – bread needs to rise, tomato sauce would taste like battery acid without it. Your pancreas doesn’t give a toss about reasons though.
Sugar’s Got More Aliases Than a Drug Dealer
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Dextrose
- Maltose
- Agave nectar (sounds proper healthy that)
- Glucose syrup
- Golden syrup
- Treacle
- Barley malt extract (what even is that?)
I photograph mad ingredient lists now. Sad but true.
Where’s All This Sugar Hiding?
Breakfast Cereals
Even ones with pictures of wheat fields and happy farmers. My mate’s kid has cereal with more sugar than Haribo. Mental.
Had Weetabix this morning. Always thought it was just wheat. Checked the box – sugar. In Weetabix!
Went to make a bacon butty. HP sauce has sugar. Ketchup obviously has it. Even the ham probably does. Everything I eat has sugar in it and I never noticed.
My sister’s diabetic so I asked her about it. She said processed food is the worst. Soup, ready meals, all that. Makes sense when you think about it.
Picked up some yoghurt from Sainsbury’s last week. Natural looking pot with fruit on it. Twenty-three grams of sugar. That’s more than a can of Coke.
Been buying those protein bars thinking they’re healthy. One I had yesterday – nineteen grams of sugar. Absolute joke.
My mum always puts salad cream on salad. “It’s salad, it’s healthy.” Yeah but the dressing’s basically sugar and mayo.
Orange juice is mental when you work it out. Takes about four oranges to make a glass of juice. Would you eat four oranges in one go? Course not.
Was feeling rough every afternoon at work. Couldn’t work out why. Probably the sandwich from Pret – bread, filling, sauce, all loaded with sugar.
Started reading labels properly now. Takes ages but you spot patterns. Anything with “-ose” at the end. High fructose corn syrup. Glucose syrup. Golden syrup. They’re not even trying to hide it really.
Bought some plain Greek yoghurt yesterday. Costs twice as much but no added sugar. Add some berries and it tastes better anyway.
Heinz tomato soup basically tastes like pudding now I think about it. Sweet as anything.
Serving sizes are made up aren’t they. Thirty grams of cereal. Have you seen thirty grams? It’s nothing.
Been thinking about getting a blood sugar monitor to see what’s actually happening. Probably should have done this ages ago but better late than never.
If you’re considering monitoring your blood sugar levels, check out our range of blood glucose monitors to help track how different foods affect your glucose.
Photo Credit: Zoom Health
Zoom Health is a leading UK supplier of Home Health Tests and Earplugs
This post was originally published in August 2025.
