Spotlight: Sugar

image of sugar, honey, and brown sugar on white background

Mar 06, 2020
By marafarr
1 Comment

How much do you know about sugar? It is sweet, delicious, and found in so many foods, but do you know how much you should be getting in a day?

Sugar: Should I Avoid It?
How Do I know If A Food Has Added Sugar?
Other Names For Added Sugar
How Much Sugar Is Too Much?
Recipes

Sugar: Should I Avoid It?

Sugar is often painted as the bad guy, but the truth is, there’s more to sugar than meets the eye!

Sugar can be found in many different foods. It can be found naturally in some foods, and can be added to others.

Naturally Occurring Sugar
Unflavoured Milk
Fruit
Some veggies (beets, sweet potato, carrots)
Plain yogurt

Naturally Occurring Sugar

Fruits, some vegetables, and dairy contain sugar. The sugar found in these foods has not been added; it is naturally occurring! They also have a lot of other important vitamins and nutrients that are good for our bodies. Eating these foods every day is good for us.

Added Sugar
Baked goods
Soda, energy drinks
Cereals, flavoured oatmeal
Flavoured yogurt or dairy

Added Sugar

Added sugar is sugar that has been added to foods during processing. This can be the sugar added to baked goods, or added to dairy products like chocolate milk.

Sugars that are described as “natural” (like honey and maple syrup), are still counted as added sugars!

When trying to lower the amount of sugar you eat, focus on reducing foods that have added sugar.

What About Juice?

Juice comes from fruit which is a natural sugar.

Most juices are made with only fruit and don’t have sugar added (Check the ingredient list to make sure!). While juice is made from fruit and contains “natural” sugar, we should still try to limit how much we drink. This is because it is easy to drink a lot at once. Drinking 1 cup of juice has far more sugar than eating 1 piece of fruit.

Think of it this way:

Would you feel full after drinking 1 cup of orange juice? How full would you feel after eating 3 oranges?

Whole fruits are much more filling than juice, because whole fruits have fibre. Fibre helps us to feel full, which helps to control how much we eat.

glass or orange juice compared to 1 orange

The amount of sugar found in 1 cup of orange juice is about 24 grams (6 teaspoons). 1 orange contains about 9 grams of sugar. That’s almost 3 times as much sugar and no fibre!