Op-Ed: Why Managing Blood Sugar Is So Hard

The Stealth Sweeteners

Most people associate added sugar with soda, baked goods, or breakfast cereal. But today’s food landscape is far more deceptive. Restaurants routinely add sugar or its chemical cousins for reasons that have little to do with sweetness: to enhance browning, improve texture, extend shelf life, and yes, to make food more craveable.

That glistening glaze on roasted carrots or the golden crisp on home fries? Often the result of sucrose, maltodextrin, or even honey. A seemingly harmless vinaigrette? It may contain more sugar per tablespoon than a scoop of ice cream. Even hollandaise — traditionally made from eggs, butter, and lemon — might include corn syrup solids or maltodextrin in its commercial form.

Worse, these ingredients don’t always appear as “sugar” on a label. Food manufacturers and restaurants use a dictionary of euphemisms: maltodextrin, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrate, erythritol, agave nectar. Each sounds benign — some even healthy — but they all have the same effect: they raise your blood glucose or, in some cases, increase cardiovascular risk.

And let’s not forget that carbs, alcohol, and even proteins are also converted into glucose and released into your bloodstream. For those already near their metabolic limit, it all adds up — quickly.

The Regulatory Loophole

At home, consumers can scan nutrition labels and make informed choices — but only if they’re educated about these subtleties. Restaurants, especially independent ones, aren’t required to disclose added sugars — even when those sugars carry meaningful health consequences. The FDA’s 2018 labeling rules mandate “Added Sugars” on packaged goods, but restaurant dishes still fly under the radar unless a health claim is made.

And therein lies the trap. A diner avoiding sugar may skip dessert, but unknowingly ingest 30–40 grams of added sugars just from the entrée, dressing, and sides. For someone with diabetes, that’s enough to throw off insulin management for the day. For everyone else, it silently contributes to the growing epidemics of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and obesity.

The Metabolic Mirage

One of the most misleading ingredients is maltodextrin — a highly processed starch derivative that doesn’t taste sweet but spikes blood sugar faster than table sugar. It’s common in spice blends, sauces, dressings, and even hollandaise served with eggs Benedict. Because it’s invisible and flavor-neutral, most diners don’t suspect a thing.

Even sugar alcohols like erythritol, often labeled as “diabetic friendly,” come with caveats. A 2023 Nature Medicine study found a correlation between elevated erythritol levels and increased blood clot risk — especially troubling given its use in “healthier” packaged foods and beverages.

What Can Be Done

Transparency is the first step. The FDA should expand labeling requirements for added sugars to include restaurants — especially national chains, where standardized recipes make disclosure more feasible. In the meantime, diners can start asking more specific questions:

• “Are the vegetables or potatoes cooked with sugar?”

• “Is there any added sweetener in the dressing?”

• “Is the hollandaise made from scratch, or from a mix?”

These aren’t just questions for diabetics. They’re for anyone who wants to understand what’s really on their plate.

The Sweet Lie

We’ve been conditioned to think of sugar as a treat — something indulgent we can choose to avoid. But in today’s food culture, sugar isn’t optional. It’s omnipresent. It’s disguised, downplayed, and deeply embedded in everyday meals.

Until transparency becomes the norm, managing our blood sugar — and our health — will remain a battle fought in the dark.