Subtract Added Sugar

By Katie Sharp, MD, Falmouth Integrative Medicine

Did you know that up to 60% of foods in the grocery store contain added sugar?1 Manufactures add sugar to products to make them more palatable and extend shelf life. It is present in foods you may not think about such as yogurts, beverages, salad dressing, pickles, granola bars, cereals, soups, bread, ketchup and condiments.

Americans take in an average of more than 17 teaspoons of sugar (about 290 calories) a day from added sugars, often in sweetened beverages, far more than recommended.2 Be aware that added sugar is not an essential nutrient so there is no recommendation to have it in your diet. However, there is a recommendation from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans to limit added sugars to less than 10% of your total daily calories, for example, a 2,000 calorie diet has no more than 200 calories in added sugar or about 12 teaspoons.3 For children younger than 2 years old there is the recommendation that they should not be fed food or beverages with added sugar at all.3 The more you can limit added sugar the better as there is a link to the most common diseases in the US such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The goal is not to eliminate all sugars. Sugar comes naturally in carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables which aids in prevention and management of chronic disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure.2 There are beneficial nutrients in fruits and vegetables that help blunt blood sugar spikes such as fiber, and antioxidants, essential vitamins and minerals for health.

Fruit juice concentrates

High-fructose corn syrup Syrup sugar molecules ending in "ose" (dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose).

For a quick exercise, take a look at the nutrition label on the common foods you have at home such as yogurts, ketchup, pickles or granola bars. You may be surprised at the amount and percentage of added sugar!

Resources for more information on added sugar:

1. New York Times: You’d be Surprised at How Many Foods Contain Added Sugar. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/upshot/itisnt easy to figure out which foods containsugar.html#:~:text=A%20team%20of%20researchers%20at%20the%20University%20of,in%20the%20store%2C%2068%20percent%20ha d%20added%20sugar

2. Harvard Health: Added Sugar: Where is it hiding?. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying healthy/added sugar where hiding 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Get the Facts: Added Sugars. https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/data statistics/addedsugars.html