This week I hosted my first Monthly Nutrition Call. The topic was “sugar.” One of the participants asked about what to look for on the nutrition facts panel for sugar. Here’s how you can determine about how much sugar is in a food. Once you have this information, then you can decide whether or not you want to eat it.
- Look at the serving size. All of the information on the nutrition facts panel is based on that serving size.
- Look at the grams of sugar and divide by 4. This gives you an estimate of the number of teaspoons of sugar in the serving.
- Look at the ingredient list. If sugar is one of the first three ingredients, it is considered a “high sugar food.” Remember, sugar has over 100 names that may appear in the ingredient list. Here’s a list of some of them.
Let’s look at an example. I have a thing for Chips Ahoy! cookies, although I don’t eat them that often. The information below is based on the “original” Chips Ahoy cookies.
- Looking at the Chips Ahoy! nutrition facts panel, I see a serving size is 3 cookies (can anyone eat just three?).
- One serving has 11 grams of sugar which means there are almost 3 teaspoons of sugar in 3 cookies.
- Looking at the ingredient list, sugar is in the chocolate chips and is also the third ingredient.
Most people realize that cookies are a high sugar food so this is really no surprise. I am surprised there’s only about 1 teaspoon of sugar per cookie. Do I want to eat them? Maybe. But, I’ll carefully choose when I want to have them.
Next time you’re buying food with a label, take a minute and look at the amount of sugar. Does it change your mind on what you’ll eat? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
