THE ESSENTIALS
- The bubbles tell you a drink is carbonated. The ingredients and nutrition panel tell you about sweetness and sugar.
- For a per-100-ml label, multiply the sugar figure by your portion in millilitres divided by 100.
- A juice may contain free sugars even when its added-sugars line reads zero.
Start with what went into the glass
At a nimbu soda stall the first question might be “Sweet, salt or plain?” All three glasses can fizz. The bubbles come from carbon dioxide. Sugar comes from ingredients such as table sugar, syrups or honey. Plain unsweetened sparkling water contains no sugar. A carbonated cola often contains added sugar, and some flavoured fizzy drinks use other sweeteners. The word “aerated” alone cannot tell you which you have picked up.
This distinction helps at home too. Plain curd mixed with water and roasted jeera makes a different drink from lassi blended with sugar or poured over sweet syrup. The quantity put into the jug and the amount poured into a glass both matter. If you enjoy the texture or spice of a drink, you can keep those parts while adjusting the sweetness.
Read total sugars and added sugars as separate lines
On an Indian packaged drink, start at the top of the nutrition panel. Look for the quantity the numbers describe, often 100 ml, or sometimes the entire single-consumption pack. Then read the total sugars and added sugars rows. Total sugars include sugars present naturally in ingredients as well as sugars added by the maker. Added sugars are already inside that total. Adding the two rows together would count the added sugar twice.
For example, plain milk contains lactose, a naturally occurring sugar. A sweetened milk drink can contain both lactose and added sugar. The line for total sugars alone cannot tell you how much sweetener the manufacturer added. Ingredients offer another clue: sugar, glucose syrup and honey are examples you may recognise. Their position in a list will not give you the number of grams in your glass.
Work the numbers for the amount you drink
The Indian manufacturer’s page for Coca-Cola Original lists 10.6 g total sugars and 10.6 g added sugars per 100 ml. A 250 ml bottle of that formulation contains 2.5 times the listed amount. The calculation is 10.6 × 2.5 = 26.5 g of added sugar. The figure is 26.5 g even though both lines on this label have the same value. The manufacturer uses 200 ml for a separate percentage-per-serving column, so that percentage describes a different portion.
For any per-100-ml label, divide the amount you actually drink in millilitres by 100, then multiply by the grams stated. A 150 ml glass uses a multiplier of 1.5, while 300 ml uses 3. If the label already gives a value for the whole pack and you drink the whole pack, simply use that figure. Check the container you are holding because sizes and formulations can change.
Understand why juice can have zero added sugar and still contain free sugars
WHO uses the term “free sugars” for sugars added during preparation or manufacture, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and juice concentrates. The sugar in 100% orange juice counts as free sugar even when the ingredients list contains only orange juice. Sugar naturally present in an intact orange or plain milk falls outside this definition. A label’s added-sugars line answers a narrower question.
WHO recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of daily energy intake. On an illustrative 2,000-kcal diet that means under 50 g across all food and drinks. A further reduction to around 5% may have additional benefits. The numbers express population guidance and vary with energy needs. A person can instead use them to understand scale: in the bottle example, one drink alone supplies slightly more than half of the 50 g reference. Free sugars also matter for tooth decay.
Choose one drink you have often
If the sweetness matters most, ask for less syrup in one usual drink or measure the sugar going into the family chai and use a little less next time. If the fizz matters most, try plain sparkling water chilled or with a slice of lime. Someone who likes both can start with a smaller portion of their usual sweet drink and keep water on hand for thirst. For fruit flavour and something to chew, try a whole piece of fruit alongside water.
When shopping, compare two bottles on the same per-100-ml basis, then check the portion you will actually finish. At a stall, where a nutrition panel is unlikely, ask whether syrup is already in the mix and whether the drink can be prepared unsweetened. That simple question is often more useful than trying to guess grams from the colour or sweetness of the drink.
KNOW WHEN TO GET HELP
When self-care isn’t enough
- If you use carbohydrate counting to manage diabetes, follow your own care plan and use the total carbohydrate information it calls for.
- For a low blood sugar episode, follow your diabetes treatment plan. Plain sparkling water cannot supply the fast-acting carbohydrate needed to raise a low glucose level.
For a medical emergency, contact local emergency services immediately. Do not wait for an online response.
Sources & further reading
These sources inform this educational guide. They do not imply endorsement or clinical review of Knowledge Your Health.
- FSSAI • labelling and display regulations, nutrition declaration (section 5) ↗
- Coca-Cola India • Original nutrition panel used for the worked example ↗
- WHO • healthy diet and free sugars ↗
- WHO • sugars and tooth decay ↗
- CDC • choosing unsweetened drinks ↗
- CDC • carbohydrate counting and diabetes ↗
- CDC • treatment of low blood sugar ↗
