Sweet Tips for Consumers
- Check nutrition and ingredient labels for sugar and its
equivalents, including sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn
syrup, dextrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, honey and molasses.
- USDA recommends limiting added sugars -- from packaged foods
and the sugar bowl -- to 24 grams a day (6 teaspoons) if you eat
1,600 calories; 40 grams (10 teaspoons) for a 2,000-calorie diet;
56 grams (14 teaspoons) for a 2,400-calorie diet; and 72 grams (18
teaspoons) for a 2,800-calorie-diet. Don't worry about the natural
sugars from fruit and milk.
- Cut back on soft drinks (40 grams of sugar per 12 ounces) --
"liquid candy" -- by far the biggest source of sugar in the average
American's diet. Drink water, seltzer, low-fat milk, or orange
- Fruit "drinks," "beverages," "ades," and "cocktails" are essentially
non-carbonated soda pop. Sunny Delight, Fruitopia, and others
are only 5%-10% juice.
- Limit candy, cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts, granola bars,
pastries, and other sweet baked goods. Eat fruit instead.
- Fat-free cakes, cookies, and ice cream may have as much added
sugar as their fatty counterparts and they're often high in calories.
"Fat-free" on the package doesn't mean fat-free on your waist or
- Look for breakfast cereals that have no more than 8 grams of sugar
- Watch out for sweets -- ice cream, shakes, and pastries -- served in
restaurants. Their huge servings can provide a day's worth of
added sugar. For example, a large McDonald's Vanilla Shake and
a Cinnabon each have 12 teaspoons (about 48 grams) of added