Heart Health – How Much Should You Limit Added Sugar?

Leading organizations, such as the American Heart Association, has been recommended sugar intake be reduced for quite some time due to the direct link to increasing obesity rates. However, an actual limit or recommendation on sugar consumption had never been established until recently.

It’s now recommended that added sugars, this would be the sugar added to foods during processing, be limited to no more than 100 calories per day for women and no more than 150 calories per day for men. This means limiting added sugars to 5-9 teaspoons per day.

Might not seem like a big deal until you compare this recommendation to the current average amount of added sugar consumed US individual daily – 22 teaspoons. Twenty-two teaspoons of sugar equals about 350 extra calories each day. To give you a reference – 1 can of regular soda provides 130 calories of added sugar.

Unfortunately distinguishing between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars can be tricky. Added sugars are often identified as “syrup” on food labels.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Heart Healthy Tips
http://www.hearthealthmadeeasy.com