It’s not always easy to tell how much sugar is in foods, even when checking their ingredients. Here’s what you need to know to decipher labels and spot hidden sugars:

Today it is widely known that sugar is not good for our health. Although it provides our body with the necessary energy, excessive consumption causes various health problems such as diabetes and obesity and can even create addiction. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends limiting daily added sugar intake to 25 grams. This includes both sugar we add ourselves (for example, coffee or yoghurt) and sugars added by manufacturers. This is where it gets difficult.

Sugar is often found in foods you wouldn’t expect, such as cereals, pretzels, sauces or ready meals, and acts as a preservative. This can be misleading.

The best approach is to carefully examine food labels to detect added sugar. However, it is not enough to just look at the carbohydrate and sugar content in nutritional information; these numbers do not distinguish between naturally occurring sugars and added sugars. Instead, you need to examine the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed in quantity order rather than alphabetically, so the earlier they appear in the list, the more ingredients are in the product.

Note that sugar can be listed under many different names. Generally, anything ending in “-ose” (such as fructose, glucose, dextrose, galactose, sucrose, maltose, or sucrose) is a form of sugar. Watch out for other sugary ingredients like molasses, caramel, agave syrup, carob syrup, cane syrup, corn syrup and maple syrup. Sometimes it is hidden in ingredients such as sugar, starch, dextrin, barley malt extract or maltodextrin.

Some labels can also be misleading. For example, if a product claims to be “sugar-free,” it means it does not contain sucrose, the “classic” sugar from beets or cane found only in white or brown sugar. But it may still contain other sugars, such as fructose (from fruit), lactose (from milk), or maltose (from the breakdown of barley or corn starch).

Similarly, “sugar-free” products may still contain complex carbohydrates such as starch (as in some “sugar-free” yogurts) or sweeteners. “No sugar added” means that the product contains only sugars naturally occurring in the ingredients, as in many fruit compotes or juices. Finally, “reduced sugar” means that the product contains at least 30% less sugar than a similar product, although it can still be quite sweet. This may be a good alternative to the typical version, but that doesn’t mean the product is low in sugar.

A helpful tip: The shorter the ingredient list, the less processed the product is. Avoid products with unknown ingredients because these are often additives (usually starting with the letter “E”). For those who find reading labels too time-consuming or difficult, there are free apps that can help. Yuka, for example, scans product barcodes, allowing you to score out of 100 and show the sugar content per 100 grams. Practical!