Extra sugar in our food is becoming increasingly difficult to spot — and to avoid. But now, for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending we limit our daily intake of added sugars. And it wants to make it easier for us to find those sugars in our food, reports The New York Times.
For adults, the FDA recommends capping added sugar at 12.5 teaspoons (50 grams) every day. A little context: A single 20-oz bottle of soda contains about 65 grams. And although the new 50-gram limit may not seem like much, as Mother Jones points out, it's still double the World Health Organization's suggested limit of 25 grams per day — which is also the upper limit recommended for women by the American Heart Association.
Sodas and classic junk foods are the most common added-sugar culprits, but the sweet stuff is also popping up in some unexpected places, such as pasta sauce and peanut butter. And, because added sugars are often disguised under different names (sucrose, maltose, high fructose corn syrup, etc.), they may be difficult to spot on a label.
To make that task a little easier, this July, the FDA also proposed several changes to nutritional labels on food. One of those changes was to add a line on the label for the percent daily value of those sugars that we're supposed to consume (which should be no more than 10% of our calories for the day, according to the agency).
Hopefully this will help take some of the unnecessary sugar out of your day. But, hey — living a long and healthy life is pretty sweet, too.
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