There are many different types of sugars. They all provide 4 kcal/17 kJ per gram. The sugars most commonly present in foods include: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose and lactose. All of these sugars occur naturally.
- Sucrose is simply table sugar.
- Glucose, fructose and sucrose are found in honey, and fruit and vegetables (see table below).
- Maltose is a sugar produced by starch breakdown and is found in germinating cereals such as barley
- Lactose is found in milk and milk products
Examples of sources of sugars in various fruits, vegetable and honey:[1]
| Source of sugars | Glucose content (g/100g) | Fructose content (g/100g) | Sucrose content (g/100g) | Total sugars content (g/100g) |
| Raw carrot | 2.3 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 7.4 |
| Apple | 1.7 | 6.2 | 3.9 | 11.8 |
| Banana | 4.8 | 5.0 | 11.1 | 20.9 |
| Cherry | 5.9 | 5.3 | 0.2 | 11.4 |
| Grape | 7.6 | 7.8 | 0.1 | 15.5 |
| Orange | 2.2 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 8.5 |
| Apricot, dried | 20.8 | 10 | 12.6 | 43.4 |
| Honey | 34.6 | 41.8 | Trace | 76.4 |
[1] Source: Finglas P.M., Roe M.A., Pinchen H.M., Berry R., Church S.M., Dodhia S.K., Farron-Wilson M. & Swan G. (2014) McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods, Seventh summary edition. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.