How much sugar is really in your food?

Some of the biggest sugar hits aren't even sweet. The numbers below show roughly how much each food raises your blood sugar, shown in teaspoons of table sugar — because that's how your body treats it.

1 teaspoon of sugar ≈ 4g ≈ one sugar cube 🧊. So "10 teaspoons" means that food spikes your blood sugar like 10 cubes — even if the label says "no sugar".
How the app counts: SugarCoachAI tracks your added & squeezed sugar (added sugar, juice, syrups) against a 30g daily limit. Bread, rice and pasta aren't added to that total — the teaspoons below show their blood-glucose impact so you can keep portions sensible, not because they count as sugar.
📄 Download the full food guide (PDF)

60+ everyday foods — added & squeezed sugar, blood-sugar spike & a better swap. Print it or keep it on your phone.

Everyday foods

White basmati rice (150g)10.1
Boiled potato (150g)9.1
Baked fries (150g)7.5
White spaghetti (180g)6.6
Banana (120g)5.7
Sweet corn (80g)4
Wholemeal bread (1 small slice)3
Apple (120g)2.3
Frozen peas (80g)1.3
Broccoli (80g)0.2
Eggs (60g)0

White rice and potato hit your blood sugar harder than a banana — despite having almost no "sugar" on the label.

Breakfast — the "healthy" trap

Cornflakes (30g)8.4
Coco Pops (30g)7.3
Bran Flakes (30g)4.8
Shredded Wheat (30g)4.8
Oat porridge (150ml)4.4
Special K (30g)4
Pure apple juice (200ml)8.6
Brown toast (1 slice)3

Cereal + brown toast + a glass of apple juice can add up to 16+ teaspoons of sugar before you've left the house.

Naturally low: eggs, chicken, oily fish, almonds, cheese, broccoli and leafy veg barely move your blood sugar at all — they're your safe staples.

🏷️ The many names for sugar

Manufacturers hide sugar under 60+ different names — and split it across several so it slips down the ingredients list. Three rules catch most of it:

① Anything ending in “-ose” is sugar (glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, maltose, lactose).   ② Any syrup, nectar, juice or “juice concentrate” is sugar (HFCS, agave nectar, rice syrup).   ③ Not sweet ≠ no sugar — maltodextrin tastes bland but spikes blood sugar faster than table sugar.

The “-ose” family

sucrose · glucose · fructose · dextrose · maltose · lactose · galactose · ribose · trehalose · mannose

Syrups

high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) · glucose-fructose syrup · corn syrup · glucose syrup · golden syrup · maple syrup · agave nectar · brown rice syrup · malt & barley-malt syrup · oat syrup · carob syrup · sorghum syrup · date syrup · tapioca syrup · refiners’ syrup

Cane & beet sugars

cane sugar · cane juice · evaporated cane juice · raw sugar · brown sugar · beet sugar · demerara · muscovado · turbinado · panela · caster sugar · icing / confectioner’s sugar · invert sugar · sucanat

“Natural”-sounding

honey · coconut sugar · palm sugar · date sugar · maple sugar · molasses · blackstrap molasses · treacle · fruit-juice concentrate · grape / apple juice concentrate · fruit nectar · date paste

Malt & starch-based (spike hard)

maltodextrin · malt · malt extract · dextrin · diastatic malt · ethyl maltol

Also sugar

crystalline fructose · fruit sugar · grape sugar · corn sweetener · caramel · anhydrous dextrose

The splitting trick: if a label lists two or three of these (e.g. sugar + glucose syrup + dextrose), add them together — separately each ranks lower, but combined, sugar is often the #1 ingredient.
Get an accurate check: when you ask SugarCoachAI, give it as much detail as you can — the shop or brand (Sainsbury's, Starbucks, Costa…), the size (tall / grande, 330ml, regular), a clear description, any toppings, syrups or sauces, and for fruit how ripe it is (a green banana spikes less than a brown one). The more it knows, the sharper the number.
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Teaspoon figures based on the glycaemic-index research of Dr David Unwin et al — "It's the glycaemic response… that matters in diabetes and obesity", Journal of Insulin Resistance (2016). For education only — not medical advice.