Sugar, Sugar, Sugar!

According to NHANES, the largest nation wide nutrition survey, the average America consumes 10 - 30 teaspoons of added sugars each day or 40-100 grams of sugar per day! 

• Recommendations advise sugar intake be no more than 6-18 teaspoons of added sugars daily. 
• 1 teaspoon of sugar has 15 calories 
• Sugar in the raw, brown sugar, and white sugar all have the same amount of calories

Other Types of Sweeteners: 

Sugar alcohols- contain less calories than sugar

• They are not considered sugar free and they do effect blood sugar.
• These are listed on food labels under the "ingredients list" and contain "-ol" at the end of their name (like mannitol and xylitol)

Artificial sweeteners- contain the least amount of calories (less than 5 calories per serving).

• These do NOT effect blood sugar. 
• 3 commonly used FDA approved artificial sweeteners:                    
• Sweet and Low- found under the "ingredients" list by the name of Saccharin 
• Nutrasweet, Equal- found in many diet sodas as Aspartame
• Splenda- listed as Sucralose

What to do:

• Buy "low" or "no sugar added" products, especially canned and frozen fruit and fruit juices.
• Limit your intake of sweetened drinks as these tend to be very high in sugar and calories and low in nutrition. 
• Substitute sugar for Splenda while baking (or substitute half of the sugar for Splenda).
• Reduce the amount of table sugar you add to foods.

Feel free to comment and share your low sugar strategies.