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Introduction: Increase the intake of sugars among the inhabitants of developed countries is related to, among others, increasing consumption of non-alcoholic beverages, for which the relationship with the epidemic of obesity, particularly among children and adolescents, has been proven. The most frequently cited are non-alcoholic beverages, sweetened glucose-fructose syrup, ie. colas, tonics, ice teas, lemonades. Fruit drinks, fruit juices and nectars are commonly cited as a healthy alternative to non-alcoholic beverages and, however, we do not pay attention to the high content of sugars in these products., Objective: Determine the content of sugars in non-alcohollic beverages popular among children and adolescents., Material and Methods: 80 non-alcoholic beverages such as cola, tonic, lemonade, ice tea, flavored waters, fruit juices, fruit nectars and fruit drinks. Evaluation of the content of monosaccharides and sucrose was performed by high performance liquid chromatography method (HPLC)., Results: In the tested non-alcohollic beverages, monosaccharides ie. glucose and fructose and the disaccharide sucrose were detected in different proportions. The product with the lowest content of the total sugars content was flavored water with lemon flavor based on the mineral water (2.72 g/100 ml). In the group of fruit juices, fruit nectars and fruit drinks highest sugars content have been reported (12.94 g/100 ml for aronia nectar and 12.76 g/100ml for the juice of pomegranate and grapes)., Conclusions: Significant monosaccharides and sucrose content in the tested non-alcohollic beverages tends to claim that their manufacturers should be obliged to place warnings on the labels addressed to patients suffering from disorders of carbohydrate metabolism. Educational programs for children and adolescents with diabetes should include information about the content of a large amount of sugars in fruit products: fruit juices, fruit drinks and fruit nectar., (© Polish Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology.)

Objective: Excess fructose consumption is hypothesized to be associated with risk for metabolic disease. Actual fructose consumption levels are difficult to estimate because of the unlabeled quantity of fructose in beverages. The aims of this study were threefold: 1) re-examine the fructose content in previously tested beverages using two additional assay methods capable of detecting other sugars, especially maltose, 2) compare data across all methods to determine the actual free fructose-to-glucose ratio in beverages made either with or without high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and 3) expand the analysis to determine fructose content in commonly consumed juice products., Methods: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and fruit juice drinks that were either made with or without HFCS were analyzed in separate, independent laboratories via three different methods to determine sugar profiles., Results: For SSBs, the three independent laboratory methods showed consistent and reproducible results. In SSBs made with HFCS, fructose constituted 60.6% ± 2.7% of sugar content. In juices sweetened with HFCS, fructose accounted for 52.1% ± 5.9% of sugar content, although in some juices made from 100% fruit, fructose concentration reached 65.35 g/L accounting for 67% of sugars., Conclusion: Our results provide evidence of higher than expected amounts of free fructose in some beverages. Popular beverages made with HFCS have a fructose-to-glucose ratio of approximately 60:40, and thus contain 50% more fructose than glucose. Some pure fruit juices have twice as much fructose as glucose. These findings suggest that beverages made with HFCS and some juices have a sugar profile very different than sucrose, in which amounts of fructose and glucose are equivalent. Current dietary analyses may underestimate actual fructose consumption., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)