(Rebecca Smithers/ The Guardian) — Consumers are being duped by “misleading” food packaging and marketing claims into thinking that honey is a healthy alternative to table sugar, health campaigners have warned.
Products boasting honey as an ingredient – including well-known brands of cereal and snack bars – can still contain up to 25 times more table sugar than honey, according to a survey from Action on Sugar.
Despite honey being deemed a “free sugar” – or added to products to sweeten them rather than “locked in” naturally – consumers are also adding it in excessive quantities to food and drink in the mistaken belief that it is healthy, the campaign group said.
Popular sugar alternatives such as agave syrup and brown or coconut sugar are also often promoted as healthier options in independent coffee shops, it added. (…)