The serving size trick hides sugar

• Manufacturers use small serving sizes to mask high sugar content.
• Use the 'per 100g' column to compare products accurately.
• FSSAI proposes bolder fonts for sugar, salt and fat information.

You’re in the supermarket, trying to make a healthy choice. You pick up a box of cereal or a packet of biscuits, check the label, and breathe a sigh of relief. The sugar per serving looks quite low. But is it? There's a catch.

The Serving Size Illusion

The magic trick of the food industry often lies in one of the first lines on the nutrition label: the serving size. A product might boast only 5 grams of sugar, which seems reasonable. However, the listed serving size might be an unrealistically small amount, like 30 grams of cereal or just two biscuits. In reality, most people consume far more than the suggested serving in one sitting. A bowl of cereal is rarely just 30 grams, and few of us stop at only two biscuits when a packet is open. Manufacturers use this to their advantage. By suggesting a tiny serving, they can make the per-serving numbers for sugar, fat, and calories appear much lower and more appealing to health-conscious shoppers.

From 'Low Sugar' to Sugar Overload

This discrepancy between the suggested serving and a realistic portion is what experts call 'portion distortion'. That cereal with 5 grams of sugar per serving quickly becomes a 15-gram sugar bomb when you pour a realistic bowl, which might actually be three servings. Suddenly, what seemed like a healthy start to your day has a sugar content comparable to a dessert. The same logic applies to instant noodles, packaged snacks, and even fruit juices, where a single bottle often contains two or more servings. If you drink the whole bottle, you need to multiply all the nutritional values, including sugar, by the number of servings listed on the pack to understand your true intake.

Your Best Defence: The 'Per 100g' Column

So how can you see past this illusion? The most powerful tool at your disposal is the 'per 100g' or 'per 100ml' column on the nutrition label. While the 'per serving' information can be manipulated by adjusting the serving size, the 'per 100g' data provides a standardised way to judge a product. It allows for a fair, apples-to-apples comparison between different brands or products. A food is generally considered high in sugar if it contains over 22.5g of total sugars per 100g and low if it has 5g or less per 100g. Always use this column as your primary guide. It tells you the true concentration of sugar in the product, regardless of the suggested portion.

Decoding the Ingredient List

Another key skill is scanning the ingredients list. Ingredients are listed in order of quantity, from highest to lowest. If sugar or one of its many aliases appears near the top of the list, the product is likely high in sugar, even if the label claims otherwise. Be on the lookout for hidden sugars like high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose, maltose, fruit juice concentrates, and even seemingly healthier options like honey, jaggery, or agave nectar. These are all forms of added sugars that contribute to your daily intake.

Spotting the Common Culprits

In a typical Indian kitchen, many packaged goods use this serving size strategy. Be extra vigilant with breakfast cereals, which can often contain more than a recommended child's daily sugar intake in a single realistic bowl. Also, check biscuits, namkeen mixtures, fruit juices, flavoured yogurts, and even seemingly healthy items like granola bars and sauces. Recently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has taken steps to make labels clearer by proposing that information on sugar, salt, and fat be displayed in bold, larger fonts, which will help empower consumers.