How Can Sugar Free Fruit Preserves Have 0g of Sugar?

Since starting my sugar wean to go sugar little, I have started looking at more foods marketed, "sugar free" or "low sugar." One of my favorite foods is a PB & J sandwich so naturally I am now looking for jams, jellies, or preserves that contain basically only the sugar in the fruit.

That got me thinking when I started seeing these 0g of sugar "sugar free" preserves. So, I tweeted asking any RDs out there, and even expressed my fear in this tweet:

"My fear is that it's 0g of sugar cuz there isn't actually enough real fruit left. It's all chemicals:( We'll see."

It turns out my guess was correct. One of my RD friends, David Grotto author of 101 Optimal Life Foods which btw is a very handy resource of a book because it talks about real food, responded with this email to me regarding the label of this particular strawberry preserves sold at a huge low price box retailer:

Okay, here’s the scoop on the strawberry preserves. As you can see in the ingredients, water, and then strawberries, predominate the list of ingredients. What’s first is most.

However, there are only 8 grams of sugars in an entire cup of whole strawberries so the preserve is starting off with one of the lowest sugar containing fruits on earth. Then, by adding Splenda, thickeners and “flavors” to the preserves, enhance the texture and flavor to make up for the lack of sugars and frankly, lack of strawberries, too!

Also, there could be about .5 grams of sugar per serving which allows the manufacturer to legally round down to “0” grams of sugar. No biggie as long as you don’t eat the whole jar. 1 tablespoon of preserves should go a long way. That, in a nutshell, is how they can get away with saying “0” grams of sugar.

To extend my fear, I go to another well known national jelly, jam, preserves brand and look up their "sugar free" strawberry preserves, and on their label they state, "adds a trivial amount of sugar" which is a * reference to the strawberry ingredient.

So, in other terms, the real fruit is trivial because they can create a strawberry preserves experience with artificial ingredients. The red is a food dye. The sweet is an artificial sweetener. 

And there you have the answer. So, I ask. Would you rather be eating an artificially made strawberry preserves with 0g of sugar or to have a smaller amount of pure fruit with some sugar?

Personally, I am going to stick with the real fruits, and just cut back. I don't want to dollop a tablespoon of a lab coat concoction on my PB & Jelly sandwich.