The teaspoon test · 3 min
Sugar, simply
Four grams is a teaspoon. Once drinks and cereals show up in teaspoons, the aisle gets quieter — and the ‘healthy’ granola looks like dessert.
Shop the Drinks aisleWhere it hides
Juice from concentrate, breakfast cereal, ketchup, yogurt with a fruit swirl, ‘healthy’ granola. Sugar is not only in dessert. It borrowed dessert’s recipe and kept the breakfast marketing.
Drinks are the fast path
A can of cola is several teaspoons in a few minutes, with no fibre to slow it down. Water, sparkling water, and unsweetened tea do the same job without the spike. If you only change one aisle this month, change the pour.
Fruit is not a loophole
A whole orange comes with fibre and water. A glass of juice is the sugar without the brake. Treat juice like a sweet, not a serving of fruit.
Sweeteners are not free
Aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame K. We mark them. They don’t add teaspoons, but they keep a sweet habit alive and they show up in ‘zero’ drinks that still score poorly on processing. Water is still the keep.
The extras we mean
On our shelves
Real packs. Tap one — the score is the same as the rest of the shop.
