The American Heart Association (AHA) has, for the first time, made a recommendation to limit added sugar. The AHA guidelines suggest no more than 100 Calories (25 grams) for women, and 150 Calories (38 grams) for men of added sugar per day.
To put this in perspective, a teaspoon of table sugar has 4 grams of sugar and about 16 Calories. When you do the math, this means the average woman should have no more than about 6.5 teaspoons of added sugar each day, and the average man no more than 9 teaspoons. When you chug down a 20 oz cola, how many teaspoons of added sugar do you get? Answer: 16.5 teaspoons!
The not-so-sugar-coated truth is, if you look at how much sugar is added to your everyday foods such as sweetened yogurts, power bars, peanut butter, catsup, and breads, you might realize you already eat more than your 100-150 Calories of added sugar - without ever having a sweet drink or treat! The point is, we really don't have much room for added sugar in our daily meal plan.
So why the new recommendation for limiting sugar? For the most part, the AHA recognizes that more than 2/3 of our adult population is overweight or obese and that added sugar contributes to the high Caloric consumption that leads to these conditions. Research also shows that sugar raises triglycerides, which can be a predictor of heart disease. One problem with sugar is that it doesn't offer any nutritional value other than Calories. When you eat a piece of fruit, you get water, fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and lots of other things we haven't discovered yet. When you eat added sugar you get, well, sugar.
How do you know how much added sugar is in your food? It's not simple. The Nutrition Facts Panel tells us total sugar which includes naturally occurring and added sugar. Any food with carbohydrates will have some naturally occurring sugar. However, milk products and fruits are the main sources of naturally occurring sugar. If a food has little to no fruit or milk in the ingredients list, then the "Sugars" amount on the food label will be a good estimate of added sugar. For example, an 8-ounce glass of 1% cow's milk has 11 grams of naturally occurring sugar. The same amount of chocolate milk has 28 grams of sugar (which means there are 17 grams of added sugar). We don't need to worry about those 11 grams of naturally occurring sugars - it's those extra 17 grams of sugar in the chocolate milk that are of concern.
The best way to see if sugar has been added to your food is to read the ingredients list. While this doesn't tell you how much added sugar is in the product, it does tell you that there is added sugar! Because the ingredients are supposed to be listed by weight the closer to the top of the list you see a sugar-containing ingredient, the higher the grams of added sugar. However, food manufacturers like to add sugar in several forms, so that no single sugar ingredient shows near the top of the ingredient list. It's likely you will spot multiple types of added sugars in an ingredient list.
Sugar comes in many forms, the following list of ingredients should all be considered added sugar:
Agave syrup
Baker's sugar
Cane Sugar
Confectioner's sugar
Corn sweeteners
Corn syrup
Dextrin
Dextrose
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate (apple, grape, orange, etc)
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Malt
Maple syrup
Molasses
Powdered sugar
Raw sugar
Sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Sugar
Turbinado sugar
Simply put, the difference between all of these sugars is percentage of glucose and fructose that each contains. Herein lies a great deal of current research - the effects of glucose versus the effects of fructose. Guess what they are finding? Glucose causes some problems, fructose causes others. Once again it seems to come down to: moderation, variety, and balance; and when it comes to sugar - a lot of moderation.
Here are a few techniques to try to reduce daily sugars:
1) Top toast, waffles, or pancakes with unsweetened frozen berries that have been warmed in the microwave. Try adding a little cinnamon, maybe a dash of vanilla or almond extract, and, if you need to, a little sugar. Try "stepping down" the amounts of sugar (such as 1 teaspoon, down to a half teaspoon, down to a quarter teaspoon, down to no added sugar), so that your taste buds adjust to the lower sugar content, and soon you will enjoy the taste of the berries without added sugar. One tablespoon of jam or jelly has 50 Calories and nearly half the daily allowance of added sugars according to the AHA!
2) Add the fruit concoction above to plain, non-fat yogurt. One cup of a vanilla flavored yogurt can have about 4-5 added teaspoons of sugar.
3) Avoid or limit sweet drinks. Try water, black iced tea, black coffee, or plain herbal teas. If you like fruit juice, mix about 1/3 cup of juice into a glass of Perrier water. Fruit juice at least comes with some nutritional value as opposed to a sugary soft drink.
4) Limit sweet treats to one time per week.
5) Choose fresh fruit to satisfy that sweet craving.
6) Choose dark chocolate (72% or higher cacao) and a few almonds or walnuts.
7) Cook down older fruits (such as an apple that is no longer crispy) with some cinnamon, almonds extract, and perhaps 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar. This is a great way to eat up less than fresh produce, and have a warm dessert.
8) Slice up a ripe banana, and top it with some melted dark chocolate (72% or higher cacao content) and then sprinkle with some chopped walnuts.
In the end, we simply eat too much sugar in America, and the food manufacturers aren't helping the situation. If you start paying attention to how much sugar you are getting each day - you may be surprised. Taking small consistent steps to reduce sugar every day will not only increase your daily nutrition, but will likely decrease your daily Calories - which can really reduce that bottom line!
