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?

MacLeech

real_aurgathor 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.

There are tons of beans without sugar, you keep picking the ones that historically are sweetened.

Astyanax

real_aurgathor I’m not sure if there’s a truly sugar free pork and beans

That’s like looking for grilled fish and chips. 🙄

Somewhat-Reticent

Bush’s Zero Sugar Added Baked Beans, BBQ Baked Beans

elvey

dave At least a US-made french baguette resembles a classic french food staple. Unlike french dressing, which is some sugary syrup thing not seen in France. And french toast.

Both apropos the OP. Sugar-drenched with “french” added as misleading marketing. Should call it sugar dressing and sugar toast.

Likely all because of subsidies for HFCS. Hope the government stops subsidizing it.

Sucralose subs for it in Bush’s Zero Sugar Added Baked Beans.

Somewhat-Reticent

Ah, sucralose - one of many chemically-tweaked forms of sugar.

real_aurgathor

MacLeech There are tons of beans without sugar, you keep picking the ones that historically are sweetened.

I’m not sure about all the “ready to eat” varieties, though I presume chilies often don’t have much, if any added sugar.

I already mentioned that I did not buy any of these baked beans – I *inherited* them, though most of it was cheap pork & beans.

With pork & beans I sometimes rinse off the sweet sauce in warm water and put the beans into my own spicy sauce.

Astyanax

Somewhat-Reticent

Somewhat-Reticent Bush’s Zero Sugar Added Baked Beans, BBQ Baked Beans

That’s tantamount to a can of brown navy beans.

AMDUSER

GeekGirl1

GeekGirl1 A lot of private label, i.e. store brands, save cost by using high fructose corn syrup.."

Quite a few private labels are made by the major name brand..

MacLeech

real_aurgathor Many canned chili have a tomato sauce base so have some added sugar, same as most things canned in tomato sauce.

Same with any thing that has BBQ sauce.

InternetJeff

Astyanax That’s tantamount to a can of brown navy beans.

We were discussing this yesterday at the office, and my head of IT is a Brit married to an Irish girl. He was relating how his wife always tries to get a hold of food brands from the “old country” where she grew up. He texted her and asked her to look for sugar in the ingredients of her favorite home brand of beans and peas in the pantry. She texted back the info.

So I don’t think this thing with sugar in the ingredients is solely an “American” thing, even though some might want to frame it that way. Every once in awhile on schedule folks pop up to lament sugar or some other usual suspect in some item of food. I amusingly remember a while back on the old site there was a usual dust up about some bureaucratic rules about sugar in bread, or the definition of “bread” if the bureaucrats didn’t like the amount of sugar in it. Good times.

Somewhat-Reticent

A little sugar aids taste, a little more helps preserve.

broknsymetry

InternetJeff But compare the amounts of added sugar per 0.5 cup serving with American brands…

Batchelors Baked Beans: 6g
Bush’s Best Original Baked Beans: 11g

I don’t know of an American equivalent to mushy peas, but the Batchelors brand contains only 2g total sugar per 0.5 cup. Compare that to Del Monte Sweet Peas (not mushy) with 3g per 0.5 cup serving. I would expect that if they were “mushy” the sugar content would be considerably higher.

Guy54435

broknsymetry Walmart great value canned Sweet Peas

5g Total 2g added

broknsymetry

Guy54435 Mushy peas have a higher density and therefore the GV brand of peas, if smushed, would contain a greater amount of sugar. However, I see that traditional mushy peas are never made from canned and I’ve not found an American canned version.

GrumpyCanadian

InternetJeff Something tells me that that is a label for the U.S. market; unless they don’t know how to spell “favourite”, “flavouring” or “fibre” in Ireland either.

real_aurgathor

MacLeech Many canned chili have a tomato sauce base so have some added sugar, same as most things canned in tomato sauce.

Same with any thing that has BBQ sauce.

As I’ve stated more than once – I do not care much about implicit/natural, or small amount of added sugar.

Here’s one chili where several ingredients have some small amount of sugar in them, but no added sugar.

Excellent taste, but not a whole lot beans and meat for the price…. 😠

MacLeech

real_aurgathor Most “white” chicken chilis are heavy on vegetables and lighter on beans. The white part comes from the lack of tomato sauce base which also means much less sugar.

Astyanax

broknsymetry Compare that to Del Monte Sweet Peas

That’s a wee bit disingenuous. If you’re trying to lower your sugar intake, are you even going to bother picking up a can of anything that has the word “sweet” in the name of it to compare with anything else? 🙄

Astyanax

real_aurgathor Here’s one chili where several ingredients have some small amount of sugar in them, but no added sugar.

If not sugar, it’s salt.

Astyanax

GrumpyCanadian Something tells me that that is a label for the U.S. market; unless they don’t know how to spell “favourite”, “flavouring” or “fibre” in Ireland either.

Notice those mushy peas use those oh-so-carcinogenic dyes (that I thought every other country in the world banned but us supposedly) for “colouring”.

« Previous Page Next Page »