The corridors of the grocery store are lined with products with additional sugar. Sometimes there are sugar in obvious places such as cookies and ice cream. However, sugar is also hidden in pasta sauce and salad dressing. Over 65 percent of the food in the average grocery store contains additional sugar.
The consumption of sugar in moderation is in order as part of a balanced diet, and it is nice to occasionally have sweet delicacies because they taste good. Unfortunately, many Americans receive too much sugar, which is associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease, type -2 diabetes and some types of cancer.
How much sugar is an appropriate amount to consume daily? And is it important whether the sugar comes from sweets, soda or fresh fruit? Let us find out.
Types of sugar
Here are some important terms about sugar:
Natural sugar
Of course, these sugar appear in food and are not added in the manufacturing process. Examples of natural sugar are sugar in fruit, sweet vegetables and milk such as lactose and fructose. These foods are part of a balanced diet, although they contain some natural sugar.
Added sugar or free sugar
In the United States, “sugar” describes all sweeteners that added food or drinks during production. The list of added sugar contains:
- White sugar: including granulated and iglical sugar
- Brown sugar: including turbinado, dark brown and light brown sugar
- Honey
- Syrup: including maple, agaven, corn and high fructosea syrup
- Fruit juice or fruit juice concentrates
The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the term “free sugar” to describe this sugar. “Free sugar” means the same as the US term “added sugar”. In the article, the terms “added sugar” and “free sugar” are used interchangeable and mean the same.
Overall sugar
Total sugar represent the total number of all sugar listed above. The added and additional sugar offers you the value for overall sugar.
Nutrition Facts Labels list overall sugar and additional sugar. The difference between these numbers is natural sugar. For example, chocolate milk contains natural lactose sugar and sugar sugar. The Nutrition facts label can say:
- 23 g overall sugar
- Including 11 grams of sugar sugar
This means that the difference is natural sugar: 23 – 11 = 12. 12 grams are natural lactose sugar.
How much sugar can I have a day?
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the Americans receive about 17 teaspoons of additional sugar a day. That is too much sugar, says the Aha, who recommend it:
- Men do not consume more than nine teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) to sugar per day.
- Women do not consume more than six teaspoons (25 grams or 100 calories) per day.
The WHO and the nutrition guidelines for Americans (DGA) offer more scope. The WHO and the DGA recommend reducing additional or free sugar to less than 10 percent of the total calorie intake. In a 2000-calorie diet, no more than 12 teaspoons (48 grams or 200 calories) per day would be.
Regardless of whether you cover your sugar intake every day with six, nine or 12 teaspoons, it is still better than the current national average of 17 teaspoons. If your additional sugar intake is currently high, any reduction is an advantage.
Natural vs. Zuckerer added: instructions
Sugar guidelines recommend limiting additional or free sugar, but not to limit natural sugar. Why is that?
Natural sugar is located in vegetables, fruit and milk. These are nutritious foods that form the building blocks of a nutritious diet. They contain helpful nutrients that the body needs. The positive nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fiber outweigh the sugar.
Vegetables and fruit contain fiber, which makes us feel full and satisfied. While it is easy to provide sugar in sweets or soda, the fruit fills up. That means we usually eat fruit in smaller quantities than when we drink soda or juice and get less sugar from it.
The natural sugar in milk is lactose. It has a low glycemic index (GI) of 46, which means that it is slowly digesting and does not accept the blood sugar level. For comparison, white sugar has a medium -sized GI of 60 and glucose syrup a high GI of 100. These refined sugar is more problematic for blood sugar tips.
You can eat fruits and vegetables every day or drink milk as part of a healthy, balanced diet. The natural sugar in these foods are not part of the AHA that limit additional sugar or limited the DGA.
Which foods contain sugar? And how much?
Many foods contain natural or additional sugar or both. Here is the natural sugar content of some common foods:
| Natural sugar | ||
|---|---|---|
| Eat | Crowd | Natural sugar |
| Apple | 1 medium | 20 g |
| banana | 1 medium | 20 g |
| Blueberries | 1 cup | 15 g |
| peach | 1 medium | 13 g |
| Beet | 1 cup | 13 g |
| Watermelon | 1 cup | 12 g |
| Milk 2% | 1 cup | 12 g |
| Kantalupe | 1 cup | 12 g |
| Strawberries | 1 cup | 8 g |
| Raspberries | 1 cup | 6 g |
| carrot | 1 medium | 3 g |
Added sugar
Many packaged foods and drinks contain additional sugar that can be listed by many different names, including:
- Sugar
- Brown sugar
- Reverse sugar
- Sucrose
- glucose
- Maiss syrup with high fructose
- Honey
- agave
- Coconut juice syrup
- Vapilized pipe juice
- Fruit juice concentrate
Food and drinks with most sugar include sweets, soda and baked goods. Here is the additional sugar content of some common foods:
| Added sugar | ||
|---|---|---|
| Eat | Crowd | Added sugar |
| cola | 16.9 oz. | 56 g |
| apple juice | 16.9 oz | 53 g |
| Pound cake | 1 disc (115 g) | 38 g |
| liquorice | 1 bag (60 g) | 35 g |
| Rubber sweets | 1 bag (60 g) | 35 g |
| Candy | 1 bar (48 g) | 24 g |
| Donate | 75 g | 20 g |
| Sugar -containing muesli | 30 g | 11 g |
| Cookies | 2 cookies (30 g) | 10 g |
| Cereal bar | 1 bar (24 g) | 7 g |
| Sweet salad dressing | 2 tablespoons | 6 g |
| Sauce folder | 1/2 cup | 6 g |
| ketchup | 1 tablespoon | 4 g |
How to reduce your sugar intake
If your sugar intake exceeds 12 teaspoons a day, you should exceed 12 teaspoons. Here are some things you can do:
- Choose water instead of soda, sweet tea or juice. Dice your water with fresh fruit, pressure from citrus fruits, mint leaves or a cinnamon tab.
- After every meal, replace baked goods such as cookies and cakes for fruit after every meal.
- Slowly cut back. Try to add a quarter or half of the sugar to the recipes.
- Plan nutrient -rich snacks in advance so that you can choose less sweets.
- Keep the fruits in containers to get a simple snack.
- Eat more whole foods such as vegetables, fruit and nuts as ultra-processed foods such as sweets and baked goods.
- Read Nutrition facts labels and examine the sugar content for additional sugar. And know this calculation: 1 teaspoon of sugar = 4 grams. If the nutritional information is that the confectionery rod has 24 g of sugar, you know that 24 g divided by 4 grams = 6 teaspoon of sugar per candy rod.
