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Sugar and salt: the names they hide behind, and what they do

The same ingredient hides under many names. Sugar can be sucrose, glucose syrup, honey, maltitol or "fruit juice concentrate" — all of them sweeten, and most of them count the same way in the guidance below. Salt can be sodium chloride, monosodium glutamate, sodium nitrite or soy sauce — all of them add sodium, and the nutrition panel only ever shows the total as sodium. The front of the pack rarely makes any of this clear; the ingredient list and the sodium line do.

Prompted by a post by @_bonn__appetit on Instagram (26 October 2026) — a glycemic index table for common sweeteners. This page checks that table against published sources, explains the names, and adds the salt half of the story. No image from the post is used here, and none of its wording is copied.

Why this page exists

This site compares what is actually in Singapore products, page by page. This guide is the companion to those pages: it explains the words you will meet on them. Three things it is for:

• Spotting sugar in all its forms. A product can list no "sugar" and still be sweetened — with glucose syrup, honey, maltitol, fruit juice concentrate or a high-intensity sweetener. The names are below, grouped so you can recognise them on a shelf.
• Spotting salt in all its forms. Salt is not only the "salt" in the list. Flavour enhancers, preservatives and sauces all carry sodium, and the panel shows only the total. The names are below, with real sodium numbers from this site's own pages.
• Reading claims honestly. "No sugar added", "natural", "less salt" and "sugar free" all have specific meanings under Singapore labelling rules. They do not always mean what they sound like. The claim definitions are below.

This page does not score or rank anything, and it does not tell you what to eat. It explains labels. For personal dietary advice, talk to a doctor or dietitian.

Sugar — every name it goes by

All of these sweeten. What differs is what they are made of, how fast they raise blood sugar (see the glycemic index table below), and whether they count as "free sugars" in the WHO guidance (nearly all of them do — see What the guidance says). Where a name shows up on this site's own pages, the example is linked — nothing here is invented.

(a) Sugars — the "ose" family

• Sucrose — table sugar: one glucose joined to one fructose. The reference sweetener everything else is compared with. First ingredient in Milo 3-in-1 and in most jams and chocolate spreads on this site — see malted chocolate drinks and chocolate spread.
• Glucose / dextrose — the same sugar under two names (dextrose is glucose from starch). The first ingredient in Splenda packets, ahead of sucralose — see sugar and sweeteners.
• Fructose — fruit sugar. Scores low on the glycemic index because the liver handles it differently from glucose — but it is still a free sugar, and the WHO limit counts it the same as any other free sugar.
• Lactose — milk sugar. The sugar naturally present in milk. It is not a free sugar when it is naturally present in milk (WHO definition), which is why plain milk can say "no added sugar" and still list sugars on its panel.
• Maltose — two glucoses joined; made when starch breaks down. Common in malted drinks and beer brewing; rarely listed on its own in Singapore packs.
• Galactose — half of lactose; released when lactose is digested. Rarely listed on its own.

(b) Syrups and liquid sugars

• High-fructose corn syrup / glucose-fructose syrup — corn starch converted to a glucose/fructose mix. On this site: Sunshine frozen pizza sauces and Ripe "100% Fruit Juice — Cranberry" both list it — see frozen pizza and cranberry juice.
• Corn syrup / glucose syrup — starch syrups, mostly glucose. Used in confectionery, ice cream and sauces across this site's pages.
• Golden syrup — partially inverted cane-sugar syrup (sucrose split into glucose and fructose so it stays liquid). Lyle's Golden Syrup lists a single ingredient, "partially inverted refiners syrup" — see sugar and sweeteners.
• Treacle and molasses — dark syrups left after sugar refining. Molasses is what makes brown sugar brown; blackstrap molasses is the darkest, most bitter grade.
• Malt syrup / barley malt syrup — syrup from sprouted barley, mostly maltose. Found in malted drinks, cereals and some breads.
• Rice syrup / brown rice syrup — syrup from cooked rice starch, mostly maltose and glucose. Found in cereal bars and "natural" snacks.
• Fruit juice concentrate — juice with the water removed. When it is used to sweeten, it counts as a free sugar under the WHO definition — "fruit juice" on the list does not make it different from sugar.

(c) "Natural" sweeteners

• Honey — made by bees from flower nectar; roughly 38% fructose, 31% glucose, the rest water and small amounts of other sugars. A free sugar under the WHO definition. On this site: pure and manuka honeys are all one ingredient — the grade (UMF/MGO/KFactor) is the difference, not an extra ingredient — see honey. Capilano Pure lists 82.5 g sugars per 100 g.
• Maple syrup — sap of the maple tree, boiled down; almost entirely sucrose. On this site: pure maple syrup is one ingredient (Maple Grove Pure, 88.3 g sugars per 100 g), while "pancake syrup" or "table syrup" under the same brand is corn syrup with no maple sap at all — see maple syrup.
• Agave syrup / agave nectar — syrup from the agave plant, very high in fructose (over half), which is why it scores low on the glycemic index. Still a free sugar. No panelled product on this site yet uses it as a named ingredient — it is listed here because it is sold as a bottled sweetener in Singapore health-food ranges.
• Coconut sugar / coconut palm sugar — sugar from the sap of coconut palm flowers; mostly sucrose (about 70–79%), with some glucose and fructose. No panelled product on this site yet; its glycemic index is disputed — see the table below.
• Palm sugar / gula melaka — sugar from palm sap, sold in blocks or as syrup in Singapore (Singlong Gula Malacca Syrup is listed at FairPrice, but no verbatim list was verified on this site — see sugar and sweeteners). Chemically close to coconut sugar.
• Jaggery / gur — unrefined cane or palm sugar, sold in blocks at Mustafa and Indian grocers. About 84% sugars by weight, mostly sucrose. Its glycemic index is not a standard published value — see the table below.
• Date syrup / date powder — dates, dried and ground (powder) or boiled to a syrup. No standard published glycemic index exists — see the table below.
• Brown sugar / demerara / muscovado — white sugar with molasses added back (brown sugar) or less-refined cane sugar (demerara, muscovado). Nutritionally near-identical to white sugar: same glycemic index, same calories, trace minerals only. "Brown" is a flavour and colour difference, not a health difference.

(d) Sugar alcohols (polyols)

Sugar alcohols are sweet, but they are not sugars and not alcohols. They are only partly absorbed, so they raise blood sugar less — and so much of them can cause bloating, gas and a laxative effect. In the EU, any food with more than 10% added polyols must carry the words "excessive consumption may produce laxative effects" (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). In Australia and New Zealand, warning statements apply above 10 g per 100 g for lactitol, maltitol, mannitol and xylitol, and above 25 g per 100 g for erythritol, sorbitol and isomalt. Erythritol is the best tolerated of the group.

• Xylitol (E967) — about as sweet as sugar, about 40% fewer calories. Common in sugar-free gum. Toxic to dogs. No standalone xylitol product with a verified Singapore list on this site yet — see sugar and sweeteners.
• Erythritol (E968) — about 70% as sweet as sugar, near-zero calories. The bulk carrier in most stevia and monk-fruit tabletop blends (Equal Stevia, Lakanto, Natvia are all erythritol first, sweetener second) — see sugar and sweeteners.
• Sorbitol (E420) — about 60% as sweet as sugar. Found in sugar-free confectionery and in some granolas on this site (Cowhead Assorted Fruits granola lists it) — see muesli and granola.
• Maltitol (E965) — the closest to sugar in taste and baking behaviour, and the highest glycemic index of the sugar alcohols. First ingredient in Lotte Zero Mild chocolate — see chocolate bars.
• Isomalt (E953) — low glycemic index, used in sugar-free sweets. Ricola Sugar-Free Original Drops use isomalt plus steviol glycosides — see candy and gummies.

(e) High-intensity sweeteners

These are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, so they are used in tiny amounts and add effectively no calories. They do not raise blood sugar on their own — but read the whole list: commercial packets and blends usually contain a carrier (dextrose, maltodextrin, erythritol or lactose), and the carrier is what you are mostly eating.

• Sucralose (E955) — about 600 times sweeter than sugar. The sweetener in Equal Gold and Splenda, and in 100 Plus Zero Sugar drinks (with acesulfame K) — see sugar and sweeteners and isotonic drinks.
• Aspartame (E951) — about 200 times sweeter than sugar. The sweetener in Equal Classic. Contains phenylalanine, so people with phenylketonuria (PKU) must avoid it. In July 2023 the WHO's cancer agency (IARC) classified aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2B) on limited evidence, while the WHO/FAO food additives committee (JECFA) the same day reaffirmed the acceptable daily intake of 0–40 mg per kg of body weight, judging the evidence of an association with cancer in humans "not convincing" — a hazard classification is not a risk estimate at normal intakes. By the WHO's own example, a 70 kg adult would need more than 9 to 14 cans of diet soft drink a day (200–300 mg aspartame per can) to exceed the intake limit.
• Acesulfame K (E950) — about 200 times sweeter than sugar, often paired with sucralose or aspartame. Found in zero-sugar drinks on this site (100 Plus Zero Sugar).
• Saccharin (E954) — the oldest high-intensity sweetener, about 300–400 times sweeter than sugar. Rare in Singapore packs now; no panelled product on this site uses it.
• Stevia / steviol glycosides (E960) — sweet compounds from the stevia leaf, about 300 times sweeter than sugar. In tabletop packs they are a tiny fraction of the contents — erythritol is the bulk (Equal Stevia is 1.4% steviol glycosides). Also used in Remedy kombucha with erythritol — see kombucha.
• Monk fruit / mogrosides — sweet extract of luo han guo. Lakanto Golden and Classic are erythritol plus monk fruit extract — see sugar and sweeteners.

Glycemic index of sweeteners — checked against published sources

What the glycemic index (GI) is: how fast a food containing carbohydrate raises blood glucose over two hours, compared with pure glucose, which scores 100. The test feeds a portion containing 50 g of available carbohydrate to healthy people after an overnight fast. Bands used in the published tables: low is 55 or below, medium is 56 to 69, high is 70 or above.

What it is not: a health score. GI measures speed, not nutrition. A low GI does not make something healthy — fructose is the clearest example: it scores low because the liver handles it, not because it is good for you, and it still counts as a free sugar. And the amount eaten matters at least as much as the number: glycemic load is GI × grams of carbohydrate per serving ÷ 100, so a small amount of a high-GI sweetener can raise blood sugar less than a large amount of a low-GI one.

About the numbers below: the starting list is the Instagram post by @_bonn__appetit (26 October 2026). Each number was checked against the international glycemic index tables (Atkinson et al. 2021, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition), the 2008 international tables, the University of Sydney GI database, or a review drawing on them (Brouns 2020, Frontiers in Nutrition). Where published sources disagree, or no reliable GI exists, the table says so — the post's number is not presented as settled. Click a column header to sort.

Click a column header to sort lowest-to-highest, click again for highest-to-lowest. Rows with no standard value always sort last — a missing value is not zero.

Salt / sodium — every name it goes by

Sodium is the part of salt that matters for blood pressure, and it arrives under many names. The nutrition panel only ever shows the total, as sodium in milligrams. To get salt: salt (g) = sodium (mg) × 2.5 ÷ 1,000 — the same conversion this site uses on every category page.

The names

• Salt / sodium chloride — table salt, about 39% sodium by weight. The obvious one, and still the biggest source: in Singapore, 64% of sodium comes from salt, sauces and seasonings added while cooking.
• Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) — a leavening agent in baked goods. It is about 27% sodium by weight, so a baked product can carry a lot of sodium with no "salt" in the list.
• Monosodium glutamate / MSG (E621) — a flavour enhancer. About 12% sodium by weight, roughly a third of table salt's, so it adds flavour with less sodium per gram — but it is still a sodium source. On this site: almost every Maggi, Myojo, Nissin, Indomie and Nongshim seasoning sachet lists it — see instant noodles.
• Sodium nitrite / sodium nitrate (E250 / E251) — curing agents in processed meat, which also keep it pink and inhibit bacteria. On this site: SPAM, Tulip and most cooked hams list sodium nitrite — see canned luncheon meat and ham and cold cuts.
• Sodium phosphates — used in processed meats, cheese and baked goods to hold water and texture. The word "phosphate" on a list is a sodium source.
• Disodium inosinate / disodium guanylate (E631 / E627) — flavour enhancers, usually paired with MSG (together they are sometimes listed as disodium 5'-ribonucleotides, E635). On this site: instant noodle sachets and some soy sauces list them.
• Soy sauce — a concentrated salt carrier, not just a flavouring. Kikkoman Naturally Brewed lists 6,833 mg sodium per 100 ml (salt 17.1 g) — see the examples below.
• Fish sauce — fermented fish and salt; used by the spoonful in Southeast Asian cooking. Very high in sodium per millilitre, like soy sauce.
• Oyster sauce — oyster extract, sugar, salt and thickeners. The extract percentage is the story on this site's page (Lee Kum Kee Premium 40% vs Panda 11% vs Amoy 2%), but all of them are salt carriers — see oyster sauce.
• Shrimp paste / belacan — fermented shrimp and salt, a concentrated salt carrier. A small amount carries a lot of sodium; it also appears inside other products' lists (kimchi, curry pastes, sambal) without the word "salt" nearby.

Hidden salt — real numbers from this site's own pages

These are sodium figures as printed on this site's category pages, per 100 g (or per 100 ml for soy sauce). The WHO daily limit for adults is less than 2,000 mg sodium (5 g salt) a day — read each row against that.

Figures are as printed on the linked category pages (some computed from printed salt, as flagged there). They are per 100 g/ml as sold, not per serving — a pack of noodles or a tin of meat is usually more than 100 g.

What the claims on the front mean (Singapore)

Under the Health Promotion Board's Handbook on Nutrition Labelling (Singapore), these claims have fixed meanings:

• "No added sugar" / "without added sugar" — no free sugars, and no ingredients containing free sugars (including honey, malt and malt extract), were added during processing. Sugar alcohols and sweetening substances are excepted — so a "no added sugar" product can still be sweetened with erythritol or sucralose, and can still contain sugars that were already there, like lactose in milk.
• "Sugar free" / "free of sugar" — no more than 0.5 g sugars per 100 g or 100 ml.
• "Low sugar" / "low in sugar" — no more than 5 g sugars per 100 g, or 2.5 g per 100 ml.
• "Less sugar" / "reduced sugar" — at least 25% less sugar than the reference food it is compared with.
• "Lower in sodium" (Healthier Choice Symbol) — at least 25% less sodium than similar products in the same category.
• "Unsweetened" — stricter than "no added sugar": no sugars, honey, malt, malt extract, sweetening substances or sugar alcohols were added during processing.

What the guidance says — and what it does not

Everything in this section is population-level public-health guidance with its source named. None of it is personal medical advice.

Free sugars — WHO

The World Health Organization recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of total daily energy intake, and ideally below 5% for additional health benefits (WHO Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children, 2015). On a 2,000-calorie diet, 10% is about 50 g of free sugars a day (about 12 teaspoons); 5% is about 25 g (about 6 teaspoons). The guidance rests on evidence linking high free-sugar intake to unhealthy weight gain and dental caries.

What "free sugars" means (WHO): all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods or drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. It does not include lactose and galactose naturally present in milk, or the sugars inside whole fruit and vegetables. So honey, maple syrup, agave, fruit juice concentrate and jaggery all count as free sugars; the lactose in plain milk does not.

Sodium and salt — WHO

The WHO recommends adults consume less than 2 g of sodium a day, equivalent to less than 5 g of salt (about one teaspoon). The guidance rests on the link between high sodium intake, raised blood pressure, and heart disease and stroke. For children the limit is lower, scaled to energy intake.

Singapore — HPB and Nutri-Grade

The Health Promotion Board recommends the same sugar limit: no more than 10% of daily energy from sugar, about 50 g on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Nutri-Grade is Singapore's mandatory front-of-pack grading for drinks, run by the Ministry of Health and HPB. A drink is graded A to D on its sugar and saturated fat per 100 ml — the grade is the worse of the two — and Grade A drinks must also contain no sweetener. Labelling is mandatory for drinks graded C and D, and advertising is banned for drinks graded D. It has applied to pre-packaged drinks since 30 December 2022 and to freshly prepared drinks since 30 December 2023. From 2028 it extends beyond drinks to pre-packed salt, sauces, seasonings, instant noodles and cooking oil.

Thresholds: HealthHub / HPB, "Make Better Drink Choices With Nutri-Grade". Nutri-Grade grades sugar and saturated fat only — it does not grade sodium, and it is not a score for the whole product.

Where Singapore stands: the average Singapore resident took in 4,000 mg of sodium a day in 2025 (National Nutrition Survey 2025, released 3 October 2026) — twice the 2,000 mg limit, and up from 3,480 mg in 2019 and 3,620 mg in 2022. 95% of residents now exceed the limit. That is about 10 g of salt a day. The same survey found daily total sugar intake fell from 60 g in 2018 to 48 g in 2025, and the share of residents within the recommended sugar limit rose from 61% to 79%. On the sodium side, 64% comes from salt, sauces and seasonings added while cooking, and another 10% from instant noodles.

Non-sugar sweeteners — WHO 2023

In 2023 the WHO issued a guideline conditionally recommending against using non-sugar sweeteners as a long-term strategy for weight control — not because approved sweeteners are declared unsafe, but because the evidence does not show a long-term benefit for weight. The recommendation does not apply to people with pre-existing diabetes. The WHO's broader advice is to reduce the sweetness of the diet overall rather than substituting one sweet taste for another.

How to use this with the category pages

Three checks, on any page of this site:

1. What comes first in the list. The first ingredient is the main one. Sugar, glucose syrup or salt in first or second place means the product is mostly that — whatever the front says.
2. Whether any sugar or sweetener appears at all, and where. Use the names above. A sweetener near the end of a long list is a small part of the product; sugar as the second ingredient is not.
3. The sodium per 100 g in the nutrition table. Read it against 2,000 mg a day. A noodle at 1,940 mg per 100 g and a bread at 441 mg per 100 g are different stories — and the table shows both, with salt equivalents in brackets.

Good pages to start with: soy sauce (the salt-carrier shelf, with the highest sodium numbers on the site), instant noodles (MSG, enhancers and broth sodium), sugar and sweeteners (the tabletop shelf — carriers vs sweeteners), honey and maple syrup (the "natural" sweeteners, one ingredient vs corn-syrup lookalikes), and canned luncheon meat (nitrite, phosphates and the highest-sodium tins).

What this page is not

• Not a health score, a ranking, or a "best/worst" list. The glycemic index table is ordered by the numbers as published, not by any verdict — a low GI does not make a sweetener healthy, and this page does not say which sweetener to choose.
• Not medical advice, and not a diabetes guide. People managing blood sugar should use their own clinician's advice, not a GI table.
• Not complete. Sweetener and salt names vary by country and by manufacturer, and new ones appear; if a name is not here, check the glossary on the relevant category page.
• Not a price comparison. Prices are deliberately not shown.

Sources and method

Checked 6 November 2026. Glycemic index: Atkinson FS, Brand-Miller JC, Foster-Powell K, Buyken AE, Goletzke J, International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values 2021: a systematic review, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2021;114(5):1625–1632 (doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab233); Atkinson FS, Foster-Powell K, Brand-Miller JC, International tables of glycemic index and glycemic load values: 2008, Diabetes Care 2008;31(12):2281–2283; Brouns F, Saccharide Characteristics and Their Potential Health Effects in Perspective, Frontiers in Nutrition 2020;7:75 (tables drawing on Atkinson/Sydney data); University of Sydney GI database and GI Research Service (coconut sugar 2014 test, agave range, maple syrup); Philippine Food and Nutrition Research Institute (coconut sugar 35); Shkembi & Huppertz 2023 (lactose ~46, citing Atkinson 2021); Uma P, Hariharan RS, Ramani V, Seshiah V, Glycaemic indices of different sugars, RSSDI journal, Jan–Apr 1987, pp. 78–82 (jaggery one-hour 84.4, full-curve 87.4 vs sucrose 83.9, in 18 people with type 2 diabetes); the sweetener GI chart derived from the University of Sydney GI database (maltodextrin ~110, maltose ~105, sorbitol ~9, maltitol 35, isomalt 2, trehalose 70 — flagged as chart-derived, not in the 2021 international tables). WHO guidance: Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children (2015); Guideline: Sodium intake for adults and children (2012); Healthy diet fact sheet; Use of non-sugar sweeteners guideline (2023); IARC/JECFA aspartame evaluations, July 2023. Singapore: Health Promotion Board, A Handbook on Nutrition Labelling (Singapore), revised June 2020 (claim definitions; free sugars per WHO definition); HealthHub/HPB, Make Better Drink Choices With Nutri-Grade (thresholds; mandatory C/D labelling; D advertising ban; 30 Dec 2022 pre-packaged, 30 Dec 2023 freshly prepared; extension to salt, sauces, seasonings, instant noodles and cooking oil by 2028); Ministry of Health / HPB, National Nutrition Survey 2025 and National Population Health Survey 2025, released 3 October 2026 (sodium 4,000 mg/day; sugar 48 g/day; 95% exceed sodium limit; 64% of sodium from salt/sauces/seasonings, 10% from instant noodles). Sugar alcohols: Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex III (laxative warning above 10% added polyols); University of Sydney GI Foundation, sugar alcohols Q&A (Australian warning thresholds). Sodium figures in the hidden-salt table are from this site's own pages: soy sauce (Kikkoman Naturally Brewed), instant noodles (Shin Ramyun, Maggi Curry, Indomie Mi Goreng), canned luncheon meat (SPAM Classic, Ma Ling Premium Pork), sandwich bread (Gardenia Enriched White) — as printed there, some computed from printed salt as flagged on those pages. The Instagram post that prompted this page is @_bonn__appetit, 26 October 2026, "Did you know?" — glycemic index table of common sweeteners. No image from it is used here and none of its wording is copied; its numbers are checked in the table above.