Where Added Sugar Hides in an Ordinary Day

Most of the added sugar people eat does not come from dessert. It comes from drinks, breakfast foods, sauces and snacks that do not taste especially sweet. The US Dietary Guidelines recommend keeping added sugars below 10 percent of daily calories, which is about 50 grams on a 2,000-calorie diet, and the American Heart Association suggests a lower limit of about 25 grams a day for most women and 36 grams for most men. Many people pass those figures before lunch without noticing.

Following an ordinary day shows where the grams tend to hide, and where the easiest cuts are.

Breakfast

Flavored yogurts, granola, many breakfast cereals and instant oatmeal packets often contain 10 to 20 grams of added sugar per serving, and servings are frequently smaller than what people pour. Switching to plain yogurt or plain oats and adding fruit, cinnamon or a small drizzle of honey you measure yourself usually cuts the sugar by half or more while keeping it sweet enough to enjoy.

The morning drink

Sweetened coffee drinks can carry more sugar than a can of soda. Flavored syrups add roughly 5 grams per pump in many coffee shops. Asking for one pump instead of three, or a smaller size, is an easy change. Gradually reducing sugar in home coffee over a few weeks works better than stopping all at once, since taste adjusts over time.

Lunch

Sauces and dressings are the quiet source: ketchup, barbecue sauce, teriyaki, sweet chili and many bottled salad dressings. So are many breads, which often include some added sugar. Checking labels once and choosing lower-sugar versions of the products you buy repeatedly has a lasting effect without needing to think about it every day.

The afternoon slump

Granola bars, flavored waters, sports drinks and "healthy" snack bars are designed to taste sweet. If you want something sweet in the afternoon, pairing a small portion with protein or fat, such as a few squares of chocolate with nuts, tends to be more satisfying than a sweet snack on its own.

Drinks, all day

Sugar-sweetened drinks, including soda, sweet tea, energy drinks and juice drinks, are the single largest source of added sugar in American diets. A 12-ounce can of regular cola contains about 39 grams, more than the AHA's daily suggestion for most adults. Replacing even one a day with sparkling water, unsweetened tea or water with citrus makes a bigger difference than most other changes combined. Fruit juice counts too: even 100 percent juice delivers sugar without the fiber of whole fruit.

Reading the label

Since the US Nutrition Facts label was updated, it lists "Added Sugars" separately, in grams and as a percentage of the daily value. That line is more useful than "Total Sugars", which includes sugar naturally present in milk and fruit. In the ingredients list, sugar appears under many names, including cane sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, agave, rice syrup and fruit juice concentrate.

Making it stick

Cutting gradually lets your taste adjust, and many people find that within a few weeks their old drinks and snacks taste too sweet. Keep the foods you want to eat less often out of easy reach, and don't swap one sweet thing for an equally sweet "natural" version. You don't need to eliminate sugar entirely. The aim is to make sure the sugar you eat is in foods you actually enjoy, rather than in drinks and sauces you barely notice.