Sugar has a sneaky way of showing up in places where it doesn't really belong. You expect the sweetness to appear in desserts, candy-coated treats and donuts, but in your hamburger?
Sugar's near-ubiquity in processed and packaged foods makes limiting one's daily sugar intake -- a choice from which nearly anyone could benefit -- a more difficult task. Krispy Kreme's original glazed contains 10 grams of the stuff, but while we expect a donut to be extra sweet, savory foods such as a meatball sub and foods that are marketed as "healthy" -- such as Greek yogurt -- can easily get by a person's sugar radar.
For the average adult, the World Health Organization recommends a daily intake of 25 grams of sugar, or about two and a half Krispy Kremes. According to Natasa Janicic-Kahric, an associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, many Americans eat around five times the recommended amount of sugar.
Overdoing it with sugar may increase a person's risk for heart disease, obesity and diabetes. A third of American children are overweight or obese, which puts them at a greater risk for developing diabetes later in life. And recent research has found that sugar can get in the way of cognitive function or even put people in a bad mood. In more serious cases, sugar-laden foods may exacerbate experiences of depression and anxiety.
If you avoid dessert and sweet treats, but don't keep track of the incidental sugar in your meals, you'll want to check out the infographic below. This is for anyone who works hard to avoid eating a donut for lunch, but wouldn't think twice about a bowl of tomato soup or a Kind bar.
(Hover to pin, tap to enlarge.)
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
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