The World Health Organization is now advising people across the globe to consider limiting added sugars in their diets to less than 10 percent of calories: about 12 teaspoons or 55 grams per day based on a typical diet. The average American currently consumes nearly twice this amount. While most nutritionists applaud this recommendation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with the help of sugar industry lobbyists, argues that the science is unfounded and are stalling and possibly preventing the final draft of this report from ever being published. Given the whopping 30% increase of sugar consumption in just the last 20 years in the United States and its suspected link to the current obesity epidemic, it seems limiting added sugars in the diet would only make sense. Understanding what added sugars are and some differences among them will help you choose wisely and keep these sugars in check.

 Naturally occurring sugars are inherent in many foods and have been consumed for thousands of years through fruits, vegetables, grains, milk and fermented alcoholic beverages. Added sugars, on the other hand came later, beginning with honey and fermented grain sugars, and are added to food for the sole purpose of sweetening them. Today added sugars are abundantly manufactured and increasingly added to processed and prepared foods. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell exactly how many grams of sugar have been added since the Nutrition Facts Panel on foods currently lumps together both naturally occurring and added sugars. Knowing the various names by which added sugars go by will allow you to find these on the ingredient list; the closer to the top, the more present. Of course many of these are also sold individually. From sugar cane and sugar beets, we get white sugar, confectioner’s sugar, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, rapadura sugar, evaporated cane syrup, raw sugar and molasses. While corn derived sugars include high-fructose corn syrup and dextrose, sugars derived from grains include rice syrup and malt syrup. Maple syrup and sugar is derived from maple tree sap and honey from bees of course, that visit various flowers.

The Coop currently carries organic rapadura sugar, organic cane sugar, date sugar, molasses, brown rice and malt syrups, crystalline fructose, Sucanat, organic powdered sugar, raw honey and organic maple syrup.

 Whether natural or added, all sugars are carbohydrates made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen that get broken down into simple glucose, the basic body fuel, essential to the function of all cells and brain functioning. However, a common question is whether some types of added sugars are healthier than others. The truth is, some sugars do contain more nutrients. But most nutritionists group them all together as "empty calories" since nutrient amounts tend to be small. Plus the fact that the amount of sugar typically required to benefit from those nutrients could potentially add extra, or unused calories-a contributing factor to obesity—that it’s better to get these same nutrients from lower-calorie, nutrient-dense whole foods.

Perhaps two of the best examples of truly empty-calorie sweeteners are sucrose, or white table sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup, both highly refined sweeteners that can cause undesirable spikes and drops in blood sugar. Such quick surges in blood sugar are believed to be at least a contributing factor to diabetes. High intake of high-fructose corn syrup has also been shown to raise the blood level of triglycerides—a type of fat-carrying particle—that increases heart disease risk. Blackstrap molasses and unrefined rapadura or evaporated cane juice, on the other hand, contain many of the nutrients lost during the refining process of their sources, particularly iron and calcium. Other sweeteners that contain small amounts of nutrients include turbinado and Sucanat, as well as maple syrup. Rice and malt syrups are two sweeteners that are touted as providing sustained energy as they contain complex sugars, which don’t raise blood sugar as quickly as simple sugars and take longer to digest. While raw honey contains trace amounts of enzymes and minerals, it does raise blood sugar quickly and contains more than twice the calories of white sugar.

From an ecological perspective, honey and maple syrup typically have a lower environmental impact due to the smaller and gentler nature of their production; and for northeasterners, many local sources of both are available. In contrast, sugar cane production has been associated with both social and environmental abuses. Additionally, the majority of corn sweeteners are derived from conventionally grown, genetically modified corn. Depending on the associated labor practices, organic sources of any sugars may be better bets.

 The bottom line is that all sugars end up as an essential metabolic fuel, glucose. At the same time, research backs the logic that food containing added sugars contains fewer nutrients—not to mention more calories. In the end, nutritionists agree that any sugars in your diet are best consumed through nutrient-dense whole foods like fruits and vegetables, which come packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients.

How much added sugar?

12-ounce can of soda	9–12 tsp
1 cup low-fat fruit yogurt	7 tsp
1 cup chocolate milk	3 tsp
1 TBS catsup	1 tsp
1 TBS jam	1 tsp
1 2-ounce chocolate bar	9–11 tsp
1 cup ice cream	6 tsp