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Watch: Tips to Cut Sugar from Your Diet
Ditch These 5 Foods (and Eat More of These 5) to Clean Up Your Diet
As a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor ofEatingWellMagazine, I think this policy draws attention to an important point-that many sweetened beverages deliver loads of unnecessary and possibly harmful calories. More than 35 percent of the added sugar in American diets comes from soda, sweetened drinks and sports drinks, so it makes sense that cutting down on these products would make a significant dent in our collective sugar intake.
3 Ways to Break Your Sugar Habit
High intakes of added sugars-the type that are, yes, added to foods and beverages, not sugars that naturally occur in foods like milk or fruit, for instance- are linked with increased risks for high blood pressure and high triglyceride levels, risk factors for heart disease, and may also contribute to weight gain.
For that reason, the American Heart Association has recommended a limit on how much added sugar we eat in our daily diet: 6 teaspoons (100 calories) a day for women, 9 teaspoons (150 calories) for men. As you can see from the list below, it’s all too easy to overdo it on sugar when it comes in liquid form-many drinks deliver more than the recommended limit for added sugars-even when limited to 16 ounces. See how the added sugars in 16 ounces of these beverages add up:
Note: A teaspoon of sugar has 16 calories.
Pepsi
13 teaspoons of added sugars (208 calories from added sugars)
Canada Dry Ginger Ale
11 teaspoons of added sugars (176 calories from added sugars)
Hi-C Orange Lavaburst
10 teaspoons of added sugars (160 calories from added sugars)
McDonald’s Sweet Tea
9 teaspoons of added sugars (144 calories from added sugars)
Fruit-Flavored Gatorade
6 teaspoons of added sugars (96 calories from added sugars)
Low-Fat Chocolate Milk
Starbucks Vanilla Nonfat Latte, Iced or Hot
4 teaspoons of added sugars (64 calories from added sugars)
Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee with Sugar
Don’t Miss:6 More Surprising Sources of Sugar
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