Did you know that products "without added sugar" can still contain a lot of sugar?

07-Jul-2025
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Whether fruit bars, snacks or waffles - many processed snack products, especially for children, often advertise with claims such as "sweetened only with fruit" or "no added sugar". Sounds healthy, but a glance at the nutritional table often shows that the sugar content is still high - sometimes just as high as in products sweetened with conventional sugar. The reason: even ingredients that are supposedly considered healthy, such as fruit juice concentrates, fruit powder or dried fruit, naturally contain a lot of sugar. The fruit's own sugar is highly concentrated during the manufacturing process, as the liquid contained in fresh fruit is almost completely removed.

"Children's snacks sweetened with apple puree concentrate or date paste, for example, can contain over 50 percent sugar. You should take a close look here and check the actual sugar content in the nutritional table," recommends Katrin Böttner, an expert in healthy eating and nutrition education at the NRW consumer advice center. Although dried fruit and freeze-dried fruit score highly as a source of energy between meals due to their fiber and nutrient content, they are no substitute for fresh fruit. Due to their high sugar content, they are classified as a sweet snack and should only be eaten in small portions.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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