Today, the federal government issued its much-anticipated update to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. For a read of the new guidelines, click here.
Most of the new guidelines sound familiar: eat more fruits and vegetables, consume more seafood and whole grains, and cut down on salt, refined grains, sodium, saturated fats, and trans fats.
One new recommendation stands out: we should limit added sugar consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories.
How much added sugar amounts to 10% of daily calories?
According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an average teenage boy needs about 2,200 to 3,200 calories per day and an average teenage girl needs about 1,800 to 2,400 calories per day. 10% limit for added sugar means a maximum of 220 to 320 daily calories from added sugar for teenage boys and a maximum of 180 to 240 daily calories from added sugar for teenage girls.
Let’s take a look at how many calories from added sugar a few common food items translate to:
A 12-ounce canned soft drink alone has 120 to 150 calories from added sugar.
A medium-sized blueberry muffin contains about 143 calories from added sugar.
A small pack of Oreo cookies (6 cookies) contains 92 calories from added sugar.
A 6-ounce strawberry Yoplait yogurt contains about 108 calories from added sugar.
A regular size Snickers bar (52.7 g) contains about 110 calories from added sugar.
2 cups of Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Ice Cream (424 g) has about 336 calories from added sugar.
A 8-ounce Acaí berry drink contains about 100 calories from added sugar.
So, plan your treats accordingly. When you tend to indulge your appetite, do a little math. There are a variety of healthy alternatives, such as water, whole grain snacks, fruits, vegetables, plain yogurt, nuts, seeds, etc. It may be hard at the beginning, but in the long run, a healthy eating habit will pay off.
Happy healthy eating!
Yesterday I was thinking of Pasta sauce. Some of them has added sugar as well, why sugar in pasta sauce?
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I guess sugar can add taste to the pasta sauce. Pasta sauce has quite a bit of sodium too. So maybe we should be careful not to have too much of it.
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I use a little bit of sugar to correct the acidity of the tomato.
If the tomatoes are sweets the sugar is useless.
Bye
Emanuele
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A little sugar for taste is what we usually do. Too much would be an issue. Just got to watch out. Thanks for commenting!
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I was surprised by how much sugar was in the ice cream and the mufflns.
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This was a very well thought out and written post! Sometimes guidelines, depending on how they’re phrased, are a bit difficult to visualize or apply (i.e. 10% of your daily calories-haha, I wasn’t sure what to make of that!). Having a basis of comparison, as you’ve done with your examples, is vital to integrating those guidelines in day-to-day eating! Ah, the other part of course is taking a look at those nutritional labels… 🙂
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Thanks for your comment! Yes, we should try to remember to pay attention to those nutritional labels.
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Great article. How to the masses of America respond to all of these new recommendations?
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I see a lot of news media report about this new guidance. But I guess people just see it as another piece of fleeting news. Hopefully, more people will pay attention to their own health.
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Very interesting.
I would like to read in the guide: drink at least 2 litres of pure water per day…
In the water there is not sugar! So far.. eh eh eh
🙂
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Great idea:)
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it is quite upsetting to see sugar in so many foods, especially in places where you least expect it (hello ketchup!).
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True. But when we cook, perhaps we can have control on how much sugar to add. Thanks for stopping by!
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Very interesting! I think we all try to limit our sugar intake and I know I have to be quite strict with myself to not overdo it when I’m surrounded by cakes. I’ve just calculated it might be okay for me to have around two cupcakes a day? Also important for me is doing a good bit of exercise, which usually means I can then safely eat a bit more! 🙂 Thank you for the figures and examples and a useful reminder! 🙂
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Thanks for dropping by! Cakes like yours are so wonderful that sometimes it is hard to resist eating. But I guess we should always have a conscious mind when it comes to healthy eating. Exercise is helpful too, especially for us teenagers.
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Great informative post, thank you. I love that you let people know how much added sugar there is in some popular food items.
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Thanks. I hope to raise awareness on added sugar among teenagers.
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Dear Chris, I’m not sure if you have watched the documentary called Fed Up (or if any of the commenters above mentioned this film), but I encourage you watch it. It speaks heavily about how sugar affects our overall diet and health.
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Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll try to find a time to watch it during school break.
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