How can I be more clear when an adjective precedes a list?

Hi, Andrew,

@Andrew Van Wagner posted:

So is the below a good solution? But we have to assume that "added" is only meant to apply to "sugar" and not to "salt"; is it fair to assume that? (Someone suggested to me that "added" must apply to "salt" to and that it therefore must apply to "alcohol" as well; do people speak of "added salt" and "added alcohol"?)

Your dietary pattern should be low—or moderate—in alcohol, salt, and added sugar.

This is not so much a grammar as a biology question. The sentence above is obviously fine if "added" only refers to sugar. If we consider that some foods naturally contain sodium, then you should say:

Your dietary pattern should be low—or moderate—in alcohol and added salt and sugar.

I don't think any food naturally contains alcohol so, if I'm not mistaken, it would make no sense to speak about "added alcohol."

My friend mentioned this information:

Many fermented foods will have a little bit of ethanol in there from the fermentation process itself, although its usually only present in very small amounts. Although I'm not familiar enough with food labelling laws to know if that's labelled as added or not (I don't think so though, I've never seen an added alcohol label on fermented foods).

Salt is present in small amounts in any type of plant or animal cell, but the vast majority of salt in food is added for taste or food preservation.