The Single Number Trap
For years, health-conscious shoppers have been trained to look for a single number: calories, fat, or maybe 'total sugar'. While this is a good start, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Food manufacturers can be clever, using different types of sugars or manipulating
serving sizes to make a product appear healthier than it is. Relying on one number is like trying to understand a movie by watching only one scene. You get a piece of the story, but you miss the entire plot. To truly compare two products—say, two different brands of breakfast cereal, biscuits, or fruit juice—you need more context.
The Two Numbers That Matter: Total vs. Added Sugar
The secret to understanding a product's true sweetness lies in two lines on the nutrition label, mandated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI): 'Total Sugars' and 'Added Sugars'. 'Total Sugars' includes all sugars present in the food. This means naturally occurring sugars, like lactose in milk or fructose in fruit, plus any sugars that were added. 'Added Sugars' are the sugars and syrups put in during processing or preparation. These are the ones to watch closely, as they contribute calories without any real nutritional benefit and are linked to a range of health issues. Our bodies don't need added sugars to function. By looking at both, you get a clear picture: how much sugar is natural to the ingredients, and how much was put in to make it sweeter.
How to Use This on Your Next Grocery Run
Let's put this into practice. Imagine you're comparing two brands of flavoured yoghurt. Both have 15 grams of 'Total Sugars' per serving. At first glance, they seem identical. Now, look at 'Added Sugars'. Yoghurt A has 'Added Sugars: 10g'. Yoghurt B has 'Added Sugars: 2g'. Suddenly, the choice is clear. While both contain the same total amount of sugar, much of the sugar in Yoghurt A was added during processing. Yoghurt B derives most of its sweetness from the natural lactose in the milk. The headline's advice—'add both numbers'—is a catchy way of saying you must consider both to make a fair comparison. The key isn't to literally sum them up, but to see the 'Added Sugar' figure in the context of the 'Total Sugar'. A high 'Added Sugar' number is a red flag. The FSSAI also advises a daily limit of 50 grams of added sugar for the average adult. Use the % Daily Value (%DV) on the label; 5% or less is low, while 20% or more is high in added sugars.
Beyond the Numbers: Watch the Ingredient List
The ingredient list is your other powerful tool, as it lists contents in descending order of weight. If a form of sugar (like corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrin, or even 'natural' sweeteners like honey or fruit juice concentrate) appears in the top three ingredients, it’s a major component of that food. Companies sometimes use multiple types of sweeteners to keep any single one from being first on the list. This is why checking the 'Added Sugars' number on the nutrition table is so crucial—it cuts through this confusion by giving you a single, clear total for all the sugars put in by the manufacturer.
The Serving Size Deception
Finally, always check the serving size listed at the top of the nutrition panel. The numbers for sugars, calories, and fat all refer to that specific amount, which can often be unrealistically small. A packet of biscuits might list the serving size as just two biscuits. If you, like most people, eat four or five with your tea, you need to double or triple all the numbers on the label to reflect what you're actually consuming. The best way to compare any two products is to look at the 'per 100g' column, which FSSAI mandates. This provides a standardised measure that eliminates any confusion from misleading serving sizes.
