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Hidden sugars in food

A

AlcalaBob

Well-Known Member
Messages
178
Location
Andalucia, Spain
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Having let my BG get a bit out of control and recently switching to low carb, I've been monitoring my BG fairly closely and a number of foods unexpectedly seem to contain high amounts of sugars, or at least carbs. The most recent revelation was bacon.

I was surprised to see that the bacon contained glucose, dextrose and "additional carbohydrates". It was supermarket packaged so I suppose I should have expected it, but a couple of rashers at breakfast with nothing else pushed my BG up 2 mmol/L within an hour - it was a controlled experiment so the rise wasn't down to anything else I'd eaten.

Has anyone else found unexpected sugar in certain foods? Things to watch out for?
 
I think it all depends on what type of Bacon you purchased......... :?: It can also depend on external reasons too, not just what you eat.

I regularly have some dry cure Bacon with no added sugars, about 0.8g carbs per 100g. No problem. Just shows how we are all very different. We keep telling people to look at the labels and don't just look at sugars as the carbs includes the sugars. Many foods contain hidden sugars although if I saw a product label that mentions Honey, Glucose, Dextrose etc I would give it a wide berth. Usually the labels give a clue....sweet cure, honey glazed etc. :wink:

A good low carb breakfast for me would be about 3 rashers of bacon, fried egg and some mushrooms .........very low carb. No effect whatsoever on Bg levels at 1, 2, 3 and 4 hrs :D

Are you sure that you didn't do something which could also affect your Bg levels and isn't solely down to the Bacon ? Things such as exercise, shower. What was your Bg on waking, if it was low you may have just 'liver dumped'. How long afterwards did you have the Bacon. Many things can have an effect on your BG levels.......it does seem quite a hike for just a couple of rashers of Bacon........ :?
 
Raw, natural meat in general has very little or no carbs. However, supermarket packed products often have sugar added to add to the colour etc. Cooked chicken is one for instance. They glaze it with brown sugar to colour it.

Always read the packaging on products for ingredients even when you think there is no carbs.
 
It was an interesting controlled experiment. The label said 0.2g sugar per 100g, but I think it was the additional carbs not listed separately that were the problem. Waking BG was 6.9 and it was up to 8.9 in just under an hour. One metformin tablet brought it down to 7.0 again within another hour but I'm trying not to use the tabs for correction this way.

By comparison, bacon from a local butcher had no effect whatsoever last week confirming your observation cugila. I realise that there are other individual differences and when I first moved to low carb, I noticed a peak caused by gluconeogenesis which I think people refer to as the liver dump, but I haven't had that for the last week.

I'll repeat the experiment of course like any good scientist but I'm now much more aware of the hidden sugar and I haven't paid much attention to this in the past. I've found on a Spanish pack of bacon a list of sugars as long as your arm including (separately listed) dextrose, maltose, fructose, glucose, sucrose and get this, assorted sugars! That's not bacon, that's toffee!

I live and learn :)
 
I think this just goes to prove how important it is to check the contents of packaged products available in the shops. Food manufacturers add sugar, salt, preservatives etc to all sorts of products to add shelf life, taste and appearance.
It would be interesting to know what type of bacon you purchased. e.g. 'Tendersweet', 'Cured Applewood' etc? The name, in some cases, rather gives it away.
 
"That's not bacon, that's toffee!"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
candyfloss said:
I think this just goes to prove how important it is to check the contents of packaged products available in the shops. Food manufacturers add sugar, salt, preservatives etc to all sorts of products to add shelf life, taste and appearance.
It would be interesting to know what type of bacon you purchased. e.g. 'Tendersweet', 'Cured Applewood' etc? The name, in some cases, rather gives it away.
Click to expand...

As I live in Spain, the bacon came from a Spanish supermarket. It's called El Pozo which probably doesn't mean anything in the UK. The packets are labelled according to EU legislation but it's normally in about 4pt type in white so you need a torch and a magnifying glass to read it :)

I'll be sticking to bacon from the local butcher in future. I wonder what other foods get that extra carb treatment.
 
I've just repeated the experiment eating exactly the same bacon with nothing else and the rise was exactly the same so I've now no doubt that the bacon caused the jump. I suppose I can look forward to more of the experimenting with different foods to identify the culprits as they arise.

At least it gives me more control in the long run.
 
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