🧭 Entry guide
Answer a few questions, one at a time: each can be skipped. No answer is kept.
Dashboard
Draw, play and combine cards: pick a region, season or occasion, or lay ingredients on the table to reveal meal ideas with little added sugar. Example data to validate, not medical advice.
Tap a tile: every section is open to you, in any order.
Card of the day
A seasonal idea drawn for today (example to validate).
📖 Idea grimoire
Pick tiles to filter; tap an active tile to remove it.
Region
Stylized map, not to scale. Example regions to validate.
Season
Occasion
Added sugar cost (example)
One pip = 1 tsp of added sugar (4 g): an example estimate to validate, not a measured value.
Rarity: common, rare (low sugar), legendary (low sugar and tied to one region). Editorial choice to validate.
⚗️ Alchemy workshop
Lay at least two ingredient cards on the table: if they appear together in one idea, it's a combo!
The table
Your hand
🥄 Sugar: grams to teaspoons
Rule: 4 g of sugar = 1 tsp.
🔮 Runes: spot sugar names
Glucose-fructose syrup is grouped with corn syrup. Listed names are counted one by one; grouped families are shown separately.
📜 Sources and licences
Nutrients: Canadian Nutrient File (Health Canada), Open Government Licence – Canada (no values are used for now; attribution will be added if they are). Product data: if product pages are added, they will come from Open Food Facts (collaborative data, no accuracy guarantee, ODbL licence) with attribution; nothing is used yet. Canada's Food Guide: link only, no content copied. Health Canada label threshold: 5% Daily Value or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot. Nothing from Mangez Québec is used. Artwork: built-in emoji and vector drawings, no external resources.
Go further
SugaredKiller guides: added sugar by food type, decoding sugar claims on labels and hidden sugar in sauces and condiments.
Before you draw a card
Disclaimer: the meal ideas on this page are examples to validate. Sugar amounts are neither calculated nor validated: no nutrition values are shown, and the pips are only an example estimate. Nothing here replaces the advice of a health professional.
Hidden sugar: where it slips in
“Hidden sugar” means added sugar in products you would not expect to be sweet: sauces, salad dressings, ketchup, flavoured yogurts, cereals, bars, store-bought broth. It is found mainly on the label, in the ingredient list. In Canada that list runs from the most to the least abundant ingredient (by weight), and one product can contain several sugars under different names. To go further, read our guides on hidden sugar in sauces and condiments and cereals and yogurts, and the sugar claims dictionary.
Names of sugar on a label
The “Runes” tool looks for the following sugar names in an ingredient list you paste. The list is not exhaustive, and a few entries still need validation:
- sugar
- white sugar
- brown sugar
- cane sugar
- evaporated cane juice
- raw sugar
- invert sugar
- liquid sugar
- sucrose
- glucose
- fructose
- galactose
- maltose
- dextrose
- dextrin
- glucose-fructose
- fructose-glucose
- glucose syrup
- corn syrup
- high fructose corn syrup
- glucose-fructose syrup
- honey
- agave
- agave syrup
- agave nectar
- maple syrup
- molasses
- nectar
- concentrated fruit juice
- fruit juice concentrate
- juice concentrate
- syrup
- maltodextrin
- lactose
Glucose-fructose syrup, glucose syrup and corn syrup are grouped in one family to simplify the count. This grouping is an editorial choice that still needs validation.
How to use the cards
- Guide: answer a few questions, one at a time. Each can be skipped, and no answer is stored.
- Grimoire: filter ideas by Québec region, season, occasion (weeknight dinner, lunch, brunch, party) and estimated added sugar cost.
- Workshop: lay at least two ingredients on the table to see which ideas they share.
- Sugar: convert grams of sugar to teaspoons. The rule used is 4 g = 1 tsp, a common approximate value (one Québec source cites 4.2 g) that still needs confirming.
- Runes: paste an ingredient list to spot sugar names.
Example meal ideas (to validate)
These are the 26 example ideas in the cards, with their main ingredients. They are editorial suggestions, not validated recipes.
- Roasted squash and apple soup: squash, apple, onion, broth
- Split pea soup: split peas, carrot, onion, ham
- Lac-Saint-Jean tourtière (homemade): meat, potato, onion, spices, pastry
- Baked salmon with root vegetables: salmon, carrot, parsnip, oil
- Spring greens and herb omelette: eggs, sprouts, fresh herbs
- Warm asparagus and egg salad: asparagus, eggs, homemade dressing
- Seasonal vegetable frittata: eggs, seasonal vegetables, cheese
- Tomato, basil and mozzarella salad: tomato, basil, mozzarella, olive oil
- Grilled corn and chicken: corn, chicken, lemon
- Quinoa, cucumber and chickpea bowl: quinoa, cucumber, chickpeas
- Pan-seared white fish with greens (Gaspésie-inspired): white fish, greens, lemon
- Seafood chowder: fish, potato, onion, milk
- Meatball stew (no molasses version): ground beef and pork, potato, spices
- Shepherd's pie with sweet potato: ground beef, corn, sweet potato
- Bean chili: beans, tomatoes, onion, spices
- Lentil and vegetable dal: lentils, vegetables, spices, coconut milk
- Homemade pita pizza: pita, cheese, vegetables, tomato sauce
- Plain oatmeal with seasonal fruit: rolled oats, seasonal fruit, nuts
- Plain yogurt, berries and nuts: plain yogurt, berries, nuts
- Chicken, veggie and hummus wrap: tortilla, chicken, raw veggies, hummus
- Cabbage and orchard apple slaw: cabbage, apple, yogurt, lemon
- Roast chicken with root vegetables: chicken, carrot, potato, herbs
- Veggie platter with homemade dip: vegetables, yogurt, herbs
- Vegetable and barley soup: barley, vegetables, broth
- Plain crêpes with fresh fruit (no syrup): flour, eggs, milk, fruit
- Apple, cheese and nut plate: apple, cheese, nuts
Limits, sources and licences
The regions offered (Montréal, Montérégie, Estrie, Capitale-Nationale, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie) are an example selection, and regional nuances are not sourced. See the Sources tab for credits and licences.
More pages: home · added sugar by food type · decode the label · version française.