Added Sugars

Sugars in your diet can be naturally occurring or added. Naturally occurring sugars are found naturallyin foods such as fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose). Added sugars are sugars and syrups put in foods during preparation or processing, or added at the table.

Foods Containing Added Sugars

The major sources of added sugars are regular soft drinks, sugars, candy, cakes, cookies, pies and fruit drinks (fruitades and fruit punch); dairy desserts and milk products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk); and other grains (cinnamon toast and honey-nut waffles).

Too Much Sugar Isn't So Sweet for Your Health

Many people consume more sugar than they realize. It’s important to be aware of how much sugar you consume because our bodies don’t need sugar to function properly. Added sugars contribute zero nutrients but many added calories that can lead to extra pounds or even obesity, thereby reducing heart health.

If you think of your daily calorie needs as a budget, you want to “spend” most of your calories on “essentials” to meet your nutrient needs. Use only left over, discretionary calories for “extras” that provide little or no nutritional benefit, such as sugar.

The Hidden Ingredient with Many Different Names

To figure out if a packaged food contains added sugars, and how much, you have to be a bit of a detective. On the Nutrition Facts panel, the line for sugars contains both the natural and added types as total grams of sugar. There are four calories in each gram, so if a product has 15 grams of sugar per serving, that’s 60 calories just from the sugar alone, not counting the other ingredients.

To tell if a processed food contains added sugars, you need to look at the list of ingredients. Sugar has many other names. Besides those ending in “ose,” such as maltose or sucrose, other names for sugar include high fructose corn syrup, molasses, cane sugar, corn sweetener, raw sugar, syrup, honey or fruit juice concentrates. Learn more about reading food labels.

Limit your consumption of foods with high amounts of added sugars, such as sugar-sweetened beverages. Just one 12-ounce can of regular soda contains eight teaspoons of sugar, or 130 calories and zero nutrition.

How much is just right?

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting the amount of added sugars you consume to no more than half of your daily discretionary calories allowance. For most American women, that’s no more than 100 calories per day, or about 6 teaspoons of sugar. For men, it’s 150 calories per day, or about 9 teaspoons. The AHA recommendations focus on all added sugars, without singling out any particular types such as high-fructose corn syrup.  For more detailed information and guidance on sugar intake limits, see the scientific statement in the August 2009 issue of Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association.

Learn more: 

• Tips for Reducing Sugar in Your Diet
• Simple Cooking with Heart Added Sugar is not so Sweet Infographic
• By Any Other Name It's Still Sweetener

If you're like many people, you're probably eating and drinking more sugar than you realize because it's added to so many foods and beverages. Added sugars add calories without adding nutrients.

Some evidence suggests there's a relationship between added sugars and obesity, diabetes and heart disease, but this relationship isn't entirely clear.

Read on to learn more about added sugars, including where they're most commonly found.

All sugar, whether natural or processed, is a type of simple carbohydrate your body uses for energy. Fruits, vegetables and dairy foods naturally contain sugar.

"Added sugars" are the sugars and syrups added to foods during processing. Desserts, sodas, and energy and sports drinks are the top sources of added sugars for most Americans, but many other foods contain added sugars.

Sweetness has an almost universal appeal. So adding sugar to processed foods makes them more appetizing. But sugar is also added to foods because it:

• Gives baked goods flavor, texture and color
• Helps preserve foods, such as jams and jellies
• Fuels fermentation, which enables bread to rise
• Serves as a bulking agent in baked goods and ice cream
• Balances the acidity of foods containing vinegar and tomatoes

Foods with a lot of added sugars contribute extra calories to your diet, but provide little nutritional value. In addition, added sugars are often found in foods that also contain solid fats, such as butter or margarine, or shortening in baked goods.

Eating too many foods with added sugars and solid fats sets the stage for potential health problems, such as:

• Poor nutrition. If you fill up on sugar-laden foods, you may skimp on nutritious foods and miss out on important nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Regular soda plays an especially big role. It's easy to fill up on sweetened soft drinks and skip low-fat milk and even water — giving you lots of extra sugar and calories and no other nutritional value.
• Weight gain. There's usually no single cause for being overweight or obese. But added sugar might contribute to the problem. Adding sugar to foods and beverages makes them more calorie dense. It's easy to consume extra calories when eating foods that are sugar sweetened.
• Increased triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of fat in the bloodstream and fat tissue. Eating an excessive amount of added sugar can increase triglyceride levels, which may increase your risk of heart disease.
• Tooth decay. All forms of sugar promote tooth decay by allowing bacteria to multiply and grow. The more often and longer you snack on foods and beverages with either natural sugar or added sugar, the more likely you are to develop cavities, especially if you don't practice good oral hygiene.

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that added sugars make up no more than 10 percent of your daily calories. For a 2,000-calorie diet, that means no more than 200 calories a day should come from added sugars.

The American Heart Association advises a stricter limit for added sugars — no more than 100 calories a day for most women and no more than 150 calories a day for most men. That's about 6 teaspoons of sugar for women and 9 for men. One teaspoon of sugar has about 16 calories.

To put this into perspective, a 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 160 calories, or about 10 teaspoons, of sugar.

Unfortunately, U.S. adults get 13 percent of their total daily calories from added sugars, which exceeds the recommendations.

Identifying added sugars can be confusing. Most people look at the Nutrition Facts part of the label for the total number of grams of sugar in a serving of the product. It's important to realize, however, that the amount shown includes natural sugars found in certain ingredients, such as grain, fruit and milk. The only reliable way to identify added sugars is to look at the ingredient list.

Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. If you see sugar listed among the first few ingredients, the product is likely to be high in added sugars.

Currently the Food and Drug Administration is considering updating the Nutrition Facts label to help clarify how much sugar is added to foods.

Sugar goes by many different names, depending on its source and how it was made. This can also make it hard to identify added sugars, even when you read ingredient lists and food labels.

Check for ingredients ending in "ose" — that's the chemical name for many types of sugar, such as fructose, glucose, maltose and dextrose. Here's a list of other common types of added sugars:

• Cane juice and cane syrup
• Corn sweeteners and high-fructose corn syrup
• Fruit juice concentrate and nectars
• Honey
• Malt syrup
• Molasses

Despite what you may have heard, there's no nutritional advantage to honey, brown sugar, fruit juice concentrate or other types of sugar over white sugar.

To reduce the added sugars in your diet, try these tips:

• Drink water or other calorie-free drinks instead of sugary sodas or sports drinks. That goes for coffee drinks, too.
• When you drink fruit juice, make sure it's 100 percent fruit juice — not juice drinks that have added sugars. Better yet, eat the fruit rather than drink the juice to get the fiber, as well.
• Choose breakfast cereals with less sugar. Skip sugary and frosted cereals.
• Opt for reduced-sugar varieties of syrups, jams, jellies and preserves.
• Choose fresh fruit for dessert instead of cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream and other sweets.
• Buy canned fruit packed in water or juice, not syrup. Drain and rinse with water to remove excess syrup.
• Snack on vegetables, fruits, low-fat cheese, whole-grain crackers and low-fat, low-calorie yogurt instead of candy, pastries and cookies.

By limiting the amount of added sugars in your diet, you can cut calories without compromising nutrition. In fact, cutting back on foods with added sugars and solid fats may make it easier to get the nutrients you need without exceeding your calorie goal.

Take this easy first step: Next time you're tempted to reach for a soda or other sugary drink, grab a glass of ice-cold water instead.

Original article: http://www.mayoclinic.org/added-sugar/ART-20045328

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