Decoding Food Labels: Spotting Hidden Calories and Sugars

Have you ever picked up a packet of biscuits, breakfast cereal, fruit juice, or “health drink” and thought, “This sounds healthy” only to later discover it was quietly packed with sugar and calories?

Modern food labels can be confusing, and many unhealthy products are cleverly marketed as nutritious. Learning how to read food labels correctly is one of the most powerful skills you can develop for protecting your weight, blood sugar, heart health, and overall wellbeing.

Let’s decode what food labels really tell you and what they don’t.

Ø  Food Labels Matter More Than You Think

Food package labels play a crucial role in promoting healthy dietary choices by providing essential nutritional information encouraging a balanced diet.

Every packaged food carries important information about its calories, sugar, fat, fibre, salt, and nutrients. When used correctly, food labels allow you to compare products and choose options that support better weight control, blood sugar, heart health, and overall wellbeing.This is especially important for individuals with health conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, or heart disease, who need to be more careful about what they eat. Food labels help identify which products are safer and which ones may worsen their condition.

Figure 1: Key Elements of a food label

Ø  Interpreting Food Labels

Reading food labels is not always easy. Research shows that people with more nutrition knowledge find labels easier to understand, while older adults and those with less exposure to health information may struggle.

Also, most people do glance at food labels often overlooking the hidden sugars, trans-fats and calories. Understanding what to look for and how to interpret it is the key.

Ø  Spotting Hidden Calories and Sugars

Hidden calories and sugars are one of the biggest drivers of weight gain, diabetes, fatty liver disease, and heart disease. Even people who eat “small portions” can unknowingly consume excess calories simply because packaged foods are energy-dense and sugar-rich.

For an instance, a food may look harmless like flavored yogurt, granola bars, breakfast cereals, or fruit juices but these can contain as much sugar as a soft drink. The only way to know is to read the label.

Figure 2: A practical example of label-based nutrition assessment

Learn what to look for on the label

Once you turn a food package around, the Nutrition Facts label gives you powerful clues about whether a product is truly healthy.

Figure 3:Reading a food label

1. Start with the serving information

Always look at the serving size and number of servings per pack.The serving size shows how much people usually eat at one time, not necessarily how much is in the entire packet.

If a pack contains two or three servings and you eat the whole thing, you are actually consuming two or three times the calories, sugar, and fat listed on the label.

2. Check the total calories

Look at how many calories are in one serving and then think about how much you will actually eat.

If one serving contains 150 calories but you eat two servings, you are really consuming 300 calories.

3. Choose your nutrients

Some nutrients should be kept low to protect your heart and blood sugar.

• Focus on saturated fat and trans-fat, not just total fat.
• Avoid trans-fat completely.

Even if the label says “0 g trans-fat,” check the ingredient list. If it includes “partially hydrogenated oil,” the food still contains trans-fat.

• Limit added sugars*, saturated fat, and sodium as much as possible. Compare similar products and choose the one with lower sugar, salt, and unhealthy fat.

* Total sugars include both natural and added sugars. Added sugars are the ones that raise blood sugar and promote weight gain.

Look for beneficial nutrients. Choose foods that provide:

• Dietary fibre
• Calcium
• Iron
• Potassium
• Vitamin D

4. Understand % Daily Value (%DV)

The % Daily Value shows how much of a nutrient one serving gives you compared to what you need in a whole day.

So, if you want to eat less sugar or sodium, choose foods with a low %DV. If you want more fibre or nutrients, choose foods with a high %DV.

Figure 4:Understanding %DV

So, if you see several of these in the ingredient list, the product is sugar-rich, even if it looks healthy.

Smart Label Reading Tips

1. Don’t be fooled by the front of the pack

Food packages are designed to sell, not to educate.

Words like “low fat,” “no added sugar,” “natural,” “high fibre,” “energy booster,” “for diabetics,” or “heart healthy” may sound reassuring, but they do not guarantee that a product is good for you.

A low-fat food may contain more sugar to improve taste. “No added sugar” can still mean sugar from honey, fruit juice concentrates, or syrups. And “natural” does not mean low-calorie or safe for people with diabetes.

The real nutritional truth is always found on the back of the pack, not the front.

2. Understand calories

Calories tell you how much energy the food provides. Extra calories that your body does not use get stored as fat.

3. Watch out for hidden sugars

Look for both total sugar and added sugar on labels.

What makes sugar especially misleading is that it appears under many different names. On ingredient lists, sugar may be listed as sucrose, glucose, fructose, honey, syrup, dextrose, maltose, fruit juice concentrate, or jaggery. Even though some of these sound natural, they all raise blood sugar and add empty calories.

Figure 6:Sugars in food: Understanding Total Sugar and Added Sugar

4. Read the ingredient list carefully

Ingredients are listed in order of quantity, from highest to lowest.If sugar or refined flour (maida) appears among the first few ingredients, the food is not a healthy choice.Look for foods that list whole grains, nuts, seeds, pulses, milk, curd, or whole fruits as main ingredients.

5. Look beyond carbohydrates and fats

Choose foods that are high in fibre and low in refined carbohydrates and unhealthy fats. Refined starches and sugars behave the same in the body and promote weight gain.

 “Healthy eating doesn’t require extreme dieting—it requires informed choices.”

 References:

1.       M A, Varakumari E, Thozhanenjan I, M V, Pandian S, Bhandari A, Grace A. Decoding Food Labels: A Study on the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Young Medical Students in Chennai. Cureus. 2025 Apr 20;17(4):e82657. doi: 10.7759/cureus.82657. PMID: 40400878; PMCID: PMC12092957.

2.      U.S. Food and Drug Administration. How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label

3. American Heart Association. Understanding Food Nutrition Labels. Available from: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/understanding-food-nutrition-labels

4.       Food Safety Standard. Components of a Food Label. Available from: https://foodsafetystandard.in/components-of-a-food-label/

5.       Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Food labelling. Available from: https://www.fao.org/food-labelling/en

6.       Eat Right India. How to read label. Available from: https://eatrightindia.gov.in/how-to-read-label.jsp

7.       NHS. How to read food labels. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/how-to-read-food-labels/

8.      NHS Inform. Food labelling. Available from: https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/food-and-nutrition/food-packaging/food-labelling