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6 Min
09/04/2026
When thinking about sugar, the mind jumps to mithai, biscuits, cold drinks, and desserts. What it does not jump to is the muesli on the breakfast table, the flavoured dahi, the sports drink after a gym session, the tomato ketchup at lunch, or the protein bar marketed as a healthy snack. Sugar is added to all of those and often under names that are deliberately difficult to recognise. That’s why it’s important to know how to spot hidden sugars in everyday foods.
The World Health Organisation recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for adults. Most people in urban India, eating packaged and processed food regularly, are exceeding that before they even reach dinner. Hidden sugars in everyday foods are responsible for a significant portion of the excess sugar most people consume without realising.
Research published in Harvard Health Publishing, which followed more than 110,000 people over nine years, found that higher intake of added sugars was associated with higher risks of heart disease and stroke. A study at Johns Hopkins found that high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages was linked to a higher risk of coronary artery disease even in adults without prior cardiovascular conditions.
There is no one absolute food that would reduce sugar level, but there sure are packaged foods and condiments which come with high sugar content to make them more palatable to consumers. Here are some common ones.
A single 50-gram serving of packaged muesli can contain 7-15 grams of added sugar, which is already more than half the recommended daily limit for women. If you consume this in the morning, your consumption has crossed 50% of the daily limit even before the day has properly started. The dried fruit in the mix further adds naturally occurring sugar.
Sugar aliases to watch for in muesli: invert syrup, glucose syrup, corn syrup, fructose, honey, dextrose, maltodextrin.
What to do: Look for muesli with less than 5 grams of sugar per serving and no syrup in the first five ingredients. Better still, make your own: plain rolled oats, raw nuts, seeds, and a little cinnamon, sweetened by the fresh fruit or banana.
Dahi is genuinely good food to reduce sugar levels, as it provides calcium, protein, and probiotics with naturally occurring lactose as the only sugar. Flavoured yoghurt, however, is a different product entirely. A single cup of flavoured yoghurt can contain up to 45 grams of total sugar.
Sugar aliases to watch for in yoghurt: sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, fruit concentrate, glucose syrup, invert sugar.
What to do: Buy plain unsweetened dahi or Greek yoghurt and add your own fresh fruit, a few berries, or a tiny drizzle of honey if needed. This way, you control exactly what and how much goes in.
Sugary beverages account for roughly half of most people's daily added sugar intake. The obvious culprits, cold drinks, packaged juices, and energy drinks, are well understood. The less-obvious ones are where the real damage happens.
Flavoured dairy drinks and milkshakes: Commercially prepared flavoured milk and milkshake powders contain significant added sugar on top of the natural lactose in milk.
Packaged fruit juices: Even juices labelled ‘100% natural’ or ‘no added sugar’ often contain fruit juice concentrate, which is essentially fructose with the fibre removed. A single glass of packaged juice can contain as much sugar as a bottle of soft drinks.
Sports and energy drinks: Marketed for fitness and performance, these are loaded with sugar, often 30-40 grams per bottle, under names like glucose, dextrose, and sucrose.
Café-style coffee drinks: A flavoured latte or chai from a coffee chain can contain 20-30 grams of added sugar from flavoured syrups alone. A large iced tea drink has been found to contain up to 25 teaspoons of sugar.
What to do: Drink plain water, fresh coconut water, fresh nimbu paani without added sugar, unsweetened chai made at home, or plain black coffee. If you want fruit, eat the whole fruit.
Condiments and sauces are perhaps the most undetected source of hidden sugar in an Indian household. Because they taste savoury, spicy, or acidic, the presence of sugar is not obvious to the palate.
Tomato ketchup: Contains approximately 4-5 grams of sugar per tablespoon. Most people use multiple tablespoons in one sitting.
Chilli sauce and hot sauce: Most commercial varieties contain sugar or corn syrup to balance the heat.
Soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and schezwan sauce: All contain added sugars, with teriyaki and hoisin particularly high.
Salad dressings: Especially French, honey mustard, and ‘lite’ varieties – some contain 7 grams of sugar in just two tablespoons.
Barbecue sauce, pasta sauce, chutneys and dip: One of the highest-sugar condiment categories, some jarred pasta sauces contain as much sugar per serving as a chocolate biscuit.
What to do: Make condiments at home where possible. A homemade tamarind chutney, kasundi, or tomato sauce gives you full control. When buying commercially, check that sugar is not in the first three ingredients.
The ‘healthy snack’ category might have fooled you into thinking that it is one food to reduce sugar levels, because you are eating better, but that is not always the case. These days, it has become one of the most aggressively marketed and sugar-laden sections of any Indian supermarket.
Protein bars and energy bars: Many commercial protein bars contain as much sugar as a regular chocolate bar. Ingredients like honey, brown rice syrup, date syrup, and glucose syrup are listed as ‘natural’, but they still spike blood sugar. A careful label check will often reveal 15-25 grams of sugar per bar.
Granola bars and cereal bars: A standard 40-gram granola bar can contain 12 grams of added sugar. Varieties with chocolate coatings or yoghurt dips add another 5 grams on top.
Digestive biscuits: Widely considered the responsible biscuit choice, digestives contain malt extract, fructose syrup, and refined flour. They are not a healthy food.
Namkeen and farsan: Spicy snacks like aloo bhujia and sev often contain sugar to balance their spiciness, something most consumers would never guess from the taste.
Flavoured nuts and roasted snacks: Many packaged roasted nut and makhana products are coated with flavoured powders that contain maltodextrin and sugar.
Instant oats (flavoured): The plain version is genuinely healthy. Flavoured instant oat packets like masala oats, fruit oats, etc., all contain sugar, maltodextrin, and flavour enhancers, often providing 8-10 grams of sugar per serving.
What to do: Read the ingredient list, not the marketing language on the front. Multigrain, organic, all-natural, and no preservatives say nothing about sugar content.
The most effective tool is always the nutrition label, specifically the ingredient list and the added sugars row, where listed. Here is what to do practically:
Look at the ingredient list first, not the nutrition claims on the front.
Look for sugar's position in the ingredient list.
Watch for the ‘-ose’ rule.
Recognise syrup as sugar.
Add up the forms.
Use the total sugars figure and the added sugars figure together.
Reducing hidden sugar does not require dramatic restriction. It requires awareness and a few consistent substitutions. The broader principle is to move calories and sweetness toward whole foods – foods where the sugar comes packaged with fibre, water, and micronutrients that slow its absorption and signal satiety. The more food you prepare at home, the more control you have over what is actually in it.
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