Ask the RD: What Counts as Refined Sugar?
Refined sugar is a useful everyday phrase, but it does not have one simple definition on food labels. Here is how to recognise it and track it without getting tangled in terminology.
What refined sugar means
Refined sugar usually means sugar that has been extracted from a plant and processed into a concentrated sweetener. White table sugar is the clearest example, while brown sugar, icing sugar and many syrups are generally included too.
The word refined describes processing, not how your body handles every individual product. It also does not automatically tell you how much sugar a food contains or whether it suits your overall eating pattern.
Refined, added and free sugars
These terms overlap, but they are not identical. Added sugar is any sugar or syrup put into a food during preparation or manufacturing, whether highly refined or less processed.
Free sugars is a broader nutrition term covering added sugars as well as sugars released from their original structure, such as those in fruit juice and purées. Sugars naturally held within intact fruit and the sugar naturally present in milk are usually considered separately.
Names to notice on labels
Refined or added sugars may appear as sugar, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose, invert sugar, molasses or syrup. Descriptions such as raw, organic or unrefined can sound different, but the ingredient may still contribute added or free sugars.
Check both the ingredients list and the nutrition panel. The total sugars figure usually combines naturally occurring and added sugars, so it may not show exactly how much refined sugar was used.
How to track it consistently
If your tracker has an added sugar field, use the label value where it is provided rather than trying to calculate it from total sugars. When that information is missing, log the food accurately and treat any estimate as approximate.
Decide what you want the number to show: refined sugar only, all added sugar or total sugar. Using the same definition each day is more helpful than switching between categories, and the amount that fits your needs depends on the person and their wider diet.