Under 6 Teaspoons of Added Sugar a day

The evidence for decreasing sugar in our diet is NON-CONTROVERSIAL. I had to put that in caps because of all the anti-science we are experiencing. What do the studies say about how much sugar is a problem? We know there are natural sugars in our foods but the problem is added sugar. Added sugar contributes to weight gain but provides no nutrients. The effect of eating too much sugar is high blood pressure, weight gain, depression, fatty liver disease, diabetes, gout, and inflammation. Added sugars are dextrose, sucrose, table sugar, honey, and sugar from concentrated juices.

The new recommendation is no more than 25g of added sugar a day (about 6 teaspoons). Do you know how to gauge how much that actually is? I find it really difficult unless I read food labels. The hidden sugars will surprise you and the only way to get a handle on how much sugar you are ingesting is to get comfortable with food labels and learning which foods have nutrients and which ones are "fun food".

I cook with a lot of canned organic tomatoes. I was surprised to learn there are no added sugars in this brand. Yay!

I don't eat a lot of cereal but I try to get high fiber when I do. The food labels tell me a lot about the added sugar

I bought some flatbread crackers the other day and was happy to read the food label. Zero sugar! Not all crackers are zero sugar.

What about the soy milk I use in my coffee? Good news there too. Cows milk has 12g of natural sugar. Its not added sugar but I don't need any extra sugar considering how much hidden sugar is in everything we eat. My soy milk has no sugar.

Go through your pantry and have some fun. Read the food labels and see how quickly you can get up to 25g of sugar a day, even if you never use table sugar. And remember one can of coke contains 39g of sugar. Enough said.