Why is there so much sugar in american (US) cuisine?

real_aurgathor · 2025-05-02T19:47:57+00:00

I’m currently eating some “Bush’s Best Country Style Baked Beans”, and it’s in thick, sugary syrup, almost to a point of disgustingly sweet. 😟 I grew up elsewhere, and while we’ve had several different dishes with beans, none of them had any sugar. Same with meat dishes – they had many different ingredients, but not sugar or any other sweetener. Sugar was used in deserts, cookies, drinks, food made with fruits, etc., but normally not much in main course meals. So why is there so much sugar in american cuisine?

dave

real_aurgathor
Indeed. We are a bibeany household (though often it’s home-made; the canned variety is usually Bush’s vegtarian).

mrs. (acting) dave, the American bean fan, nevertheless is a devotee of the product of haute cuisine British cookery known as beans on toast.

HooRU

Some say the diebetes epidemic here in the USA is related to sugar in food to an extent. I’m diabetic myself, but I try and control my intake. Sadly, too many fast foods and prepped meals are loaded with sugar.

In the Philippines, it’s even worse, their spaghetti is as sweet as candy.

Sparkchaser

dave beans on toast.

Part of a full English breakfast.

The beans my wife grew up with on the other side of the Irish Sea (Muir Eireann)

MacLeech

real_aurgathor The original recipe for Baked Beans is SWEET. Originally with maple syrup, later with molasses, then with brown sugar. If they are not sweetened, they are not baked beans. If you don’t want sweet beans, don’t buy ANY baked beans.

Astyanax

MacLeech The original recipe for Baked Beans is SWEET. Originally with maple syrup, later with molasses, then with brown sugar. If they are not sweetened, they are not baked beans. If you don’t want sweet beans, don’t buy ANY baked beans.

THIS!

Complaining about why there’s so much sugar in baked beans is like complaining why there’s so much sugar in Oreos. 🙄

real_aurgathor

MacLeech If you don’t want sweet beans, don’t buy ANY baked beans.

For the record, I did not buy those baked beans.

dave

MacLeech

Because it’s the RULE that recipes should be invariant, and to hell with changing tastes!

(It’s also the RULE that bread is not sweet, but somehow adding sugar is ok)

(Unless it’s sweetbread…)

Sparkchaser

MacLeech If you don’t want sweet beans, don’t buy ANY baked beans.

I think the POINT of the post was that of American diet vs (well, most of the world). There is a lot of added sugar in the American diet.

As to bake beans, I had an uncle from New Hampshire. He of course had to have baked beans. They were home made and did not taste like the can stuff you buy. This was 65+ years ago.

I do recall wondering why he was eating these when there was A LOT of home made Italian food. 😃

Somewhat-Reticent

HooRU Sugar without fiber, or even oleos or aminos to slow it down.

real_aurgathor

Today I’ve had the “Barbecue Beans” – it was still sweet, but at least not *sickeningly* sweet. Instead of the nearly pure heavy syrup, the beans were in a slightly spicy tomato paste based sauce. Much better than the original, and I think the sugar content was probably no more than ⅓ of the “Original” pictured above.

dave

Sparkchaser I do recall wondering why he was eating these when there was A LOT of home made Italian food.

So, spaghetti con fagioli al forno and problem solved,

HooRU

I find most canned pork and beans way too sweet.

Somewhat-Reticent

HooRU That’s a Good Thing. Your senses are working for you.

real_aurgathor

HooRU

I’m not sure if there’s a truly sugar free pork and beans (even ignoring implicit sugar in tomato paste), or any other ready to eat beans, but I have some canned beans with the listed ingredients of only: “Prepared black beans, water, sea salt”.

MacLeech

real_aurgathor I’m not sure if there’s a truly sugar free pork and beans (even ignoring implicit sugar in tomato paste), or any other ready to eat beans

Pork and beans is just baked beans with pork in it. Sweetener is part of the normal, basic recipe. AVOID any type of beans in light brown sauce, if you don’t want sugar in your beans. Otherwise, you have to go out of your way to buy “sugar-free” beans that purposely use sugar substitutes.

This is similar to cookies and cake, the vast majority will have sugar in them unless you purposely get the sugar-free ones. Buffalo wings will normally have meat in them, unless you get the meat-free versions. Bread will normally have wheat in it, unless you get wheat free versions. etc.

A variety of plain beans such as pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, navy beans, etc. don’t have sugar normally added to them.

There are plenty of no sugar foods in American cuisine.

Somewhat-Reticent

MacLeech There are plenty of no sugar foods in American cuisine.

Technically true.

Thane_Bitter

real_aurgathor Big sugar wants to keep you buying the stuff, they are almost the same as the tabacco lobby, just sweeter 😉
NPR story worth reading: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat

US foods are loaded with it, even canned green peas have added sugar. No salt salt (salt substitute) has sugar in it, Tang if you want to call it a food (it’s not natural being entirely synthetic in flavour) is 94% sugar by mass in its dried form. As a former visitor to the US its insane the levels of sugar/glucose/fructose/liquid sugar invert and related substances put into things.

If you know of a shop that sells UK products try the UK version of Heinz beans, they have much less sugar overall. IMHO seems more like a candy coated bean which is just weird. You can make your own baked beans, a crockpot, instapot, are some of the easier methods (ie set and leave it do its thing for hours). The traditional method with a ceramic bean pot and lid takes the same amount of time but requires checking and the occasional top up with water. If you know someone that cans (and does so safely) that is another way to make beans with as much or as little sugar as you wish and end up being nearly identical to the texture of canned beans.

Somewhat-Reticent

And then there’s pancreatic cancer …

Sparkchaser

dave spaghetti con fagioli al forno and problem solved,

It was decades ago. I don’t know if that was ever on offer. I was a ragazzino. We did have pasta e fagioli, though.

real_aurgathor

MacLeech Sweetener is part of the normal, basic recipe. AVOID any type of beans in light brown sauce, if you don’t want sugar in your beans. Otherwise, you have to go out of your way to buy “sugar-free” beans that purposely use sugar substitutes.

Just to make myself clear, I’m not looking for “sugar-free” foods – I’m complaining about certain food items that have *excessive* amount of sugar compared to what I consider normal.

I understand that cookies. cakes, various fruit preserves will almost always have sugar, sometimes even lots of it, but those are usually not the staple food items.

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