The other day, my stomach hurt. That doesn’t usually happen to me anymore since I gave up gluten and sugar with the keto diet. I went into the bathroom and grabbed an old container of Tums that we had. I was about to pop it into my mouth when Bill said, “Stop!” “What?” I asked, startled. “Those have sugar in them,” he told me. Yep, there is sugar in medicine.
Sugar in Medicine
Wait, what? I never even considered that they could have sugar in them. They are medicine for an upset stomach. They aren’t a snack or a treat. So, I looked up the nutritional information and sure enough, they had 2 grams of sugar in them. With further research, I found that they do offer sugar free Tums, but I haven’t seen them locally. I also looked up a rival product, Rolaids and found that they also have 2 grams of sugar in them.
A few weeks after this happened, I had a bit of a sore throat. I thought I’d go buy some Halls. I was on to their tricks now, and I looked up the information. One Halls lozenge had 4 grams of sugar! Well, I wasn’t doing that so I thought maybe the herbal variety Ricola would be a better option. The Natural Herb variety was only slightly better at 3 grams of sugar.
What Medicine Doesn’t Have Sugar
Okay, so what about the ones I never used to like, Cepacol? They didn’t taste like they had sugar in them. They had less, but still 2 grams. The only thing I could find was Buckley’s. Their catch phrase is that it tastes awful but it works. Well, now I know why. They are the only ones who don’t add sugar to their medicine!
Well, now I was getting mad. Why are companies putting sugar in things we take when we get sick? I know Mary Poppins sings about a spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down, but this is ridiculous. Worse was that there was no nutritional information on the bottle that indicated there were carbs in them. They don’t have to put the nutritional label on their products.
What they do have to do is list the inactive ingredients. Well, that doesn’t help much. Firstly, the list is in small print and I’m getting to the age where that is hard to read. Secondly, if I can read it, I don’t know what a lot of the things listed are! They include flavourings, colouring, binders and sweeteners. They have long, scientific names and are chemicals I have never heard of.
My Sugar in Medicine Research Didn’t Help
The more I looked into this, the more I started reading that people with diabetes have to be very careful of what they take so over-the-counter medications don’t raise their blood sugar levels. One article stated that NyQuil is one of the worst offenders as it contained alcohol and high fructose corn syrup (i.e. sugar). One dose of NyQuil had 20 grams of carbs in it. This could be extremely harmful for someone’s health, let alone their diet.
I am living a keto lifestyle because I like the way I feel and the way it has allowed me to lose weight. Bill is living a keto lifestyle first and foremost because of his health. If he takes something in that raises his blood sugar, it is harmful to his health and causes damage to his heart. The fact that these inactive ingredients show in small print and are in terms that the everyday person can’t understand seems really wrong to me!
It’s Very Easy to Hide Sugar in Medicine
If you Google the names of sugar, there are anywhere from 50 to 65 different names it can fall under. The Health Sciences Academy has a great list of what sugar is called. Now, I knew ones like “corn syrup,” “raw sugar” and even “fructose” were other names for sugar. But here are a couple I didn’t know: dextran, dextrose, galactose, and mannitol. I would have no clue those were sugars if I read them on an inactive ingredients list.
I cannot believe that these companies get away with not having a nutritional label on their products when they can have a serious impact on a person’s health. So, what do you do to make sure you are not taking in sugar when you take an over-the-counter medication?
Its Best To Talk To A Professional
You can certainly do your own research and Google what the inactive ingredients are in the product. But the best thing to do is to talk to your pharmacist. They will know what all those scientific words mean and will be able to break down the information for you.
I guess Mary Poppins was right that a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. I just thought we’d have a choice of whether or not to go that route!
Wendy
