Sugar in the Diet

Sugar in the Diet

I do lots of nutrition presentations and one of the activities I often do with participants is teach them how to convert grams to teaspoons to determine amount of sugar in food. Then with teaspoons and sugar, they measure out number of teaspoons of sugar in one serving of the product and in some cases, number of teaspoons per product such as a 20 ounce bottle of soda.

The average American consumes more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day. Some of the sugar we consumer occurs naturally in food, while in other cases, sugar is added to sweeten food. For example, an orange has naturally occurring sugar and these foods are an important part of the diet.

Other foods that contain sugar may have that sugar extracted from the food which is added to another food. Added sugars are not good for your health. Examples of added sugar include: Agave, brown sugar, cane juice, corn syrup, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, and white granulated sugar.

Too much sugar can contribute to overweight or obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance.

Reduce sugar consumption by choosing water, unsweetened tea, or coffee. Use less processed foods, choose fruits and vegetables for snacks and dessert and reduce the number of desserts consumed.