Sugar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s about time that the FDA denied the Corn Refiner’s request to rename high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar.
The combined total of naturally occurring sugars and added sugars appears on the food labels in the line reading “sugars”. On a label’s ingredients list, the term sugar means sucrose. Added sugars and syrups are added to a food for any purpose to add sweetness or bulk or in browning (baked goods).
Look for other names on ingredient labels like corn syrup, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, galactose, glucose invert sugar, lactose, maltose, sucrose, molasses, levulose (an older name for fructose), and concentrated fruit juice sweetener.
It is also helpful to remember there are added sugars in common processed foods:
1/2 cup canned corn = 3 tsp. sugar
12 oz. cola = 8 tsp. sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup = 1 tsp. sugar
1 tablespoon creamer = 2 tsp. sugar
8 oz. sweetened yogurt = 7 tsp. sugar
2 oz. chocolate = 8 tsp. sugar
The American Heart Association has specific guidelines for added sugar — no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar for most women and no more than 150 calories a day for most men. That’s about 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 for men.
Most Americans get more than 22 teaspoons — or 355 calories — of added sugar a day, which far exceeds USDA guidelines and American Heart Association recommendations.
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