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WillyG

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Today I went food shopping for the first time since getting my Type 2 diagnosis. I’ve long avoided the obvious sources of sugar like frosted cereals and cakes, but haven’t paid too much attention to reading the ingredients on packaged foods.
I was astonished to discover that a small tin of LiDL French Onion Soup has 12g of sugar in it. Surely the entire point of French Onion Soup is that the onions are caramelised, so providing sweetness?IMG_5591.jpeg
 
That is indeed the theory - however when you're making it and the onions don't provide enough sweetness to counteract the nasty tang of bitterness you sometimes get, the fairly instant cure is to add a very small amount of sugar. I've only ever made it for a dinner party myself and as I didn't offer a choice of menu no way could I chuck it away and start again. Haven't a clue but just maybe commercial soup makers add a (measured) dollop of something sweet as a matter of course, to pre-empt any such thing. Are there any E numbers in the list of ingredients?
 
It won't all be added sugar, a lot of it will be the sugars in the onions. Info for Tesco brown onions lists them as 8.0g carb per 100g and of that 6.2g is sugars.
 
Is that 12g of sugar "added" sugar, or sugar obtained from the caramelisation, or a mixture of both?

You'd get a similar result if an orange was assessed for its sugar content - but in that case it would be all "natural" sugar, probably fructose.

However it is derived, sugar is still sugar!
 
You are better ignoring the 'sugar' and look at the total carb for the product. I suppose there is merit in looking at the sugar if you have two products with the same carbs to choose the one with the lower 'as sugar'.
Some things can be low sugar but still very high carb. My classic example is the cereal puffed wheat (evil stuff) which has only 0.6g sugar per 100g but a whopping 68.6g carb per 100g. If you just look at the sugar you would be truly deceived.
 
Leadinglights said:
My classic example is the cereal puffed wheat (evil stuff) which has only 0.6g sugar per 100g but a whopping 68.6g carb per 100g. If you just look at the sugar you would be truly deceived.
Click to expand...
My classic example is a packet of Walkers Ready Salted crisps, 52g carb per 100g, 0.4g of which is sugars.
 
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