How much sugar does your jam contain?

Last week when we were at the Supermarket I bought myself some Strawberry Jam (jelly for my American readers). I love Strawberries and I absolutely love Strawberry Jam, it's my favourite. So of course I have this rule about Strawberry Jam or any jam for that matter. It must be flavoursome, contain loads of fruit and not overly sweet.

Having a jam criteria requires a little patience and light reading at the Supermarket. This usually means I send the man off to start the shop and in the meantime I can compare the list of sugar verses fruit, size of jar, and price without being nagged to hurry up. Did you know that some jams contain more sugar per 100grams of product than fruit?

I find this quite alarming, consumers think they're buying jam and in actual fact they're eating sugar with a bit of colour and fruit thrown in. If you're going to buy this type of jam you may as well save your money and sprinkle sugar on your toast.

Don't get me wrong sweet jams have their place just not on my toast. If I happen to buy jam that's too sweet I use it as jam filler in biscuits, cakes and slices. When I make jam on toast I like it to be warm so the butter can melt and mix in with spreadable jam. I love how the aroma of the toast and freshly brewed coffee fills the air, and makes for a wonderful breakfast knowing your jam will taste devine.

I feel good about reducing the amount of sugar in our diet and I get more fruit for my money. For brand name sake I am not going to mention the name but I will share the info about the fruit verses sugar content so you can be sure to buy real jam.

The sugar verses fruit content for a 340gram jar of jam will be something like this;

Sweet Jam
45g fruit per 100g of product
60g sugar per 100g of product

Real Jam
60g fruit per 100g of product
44g sugar per 100g of product

If you would like to make a difference to your family's sugar intake, take your time and read the ingredients label, you'll be surprised.