Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

228 ALICE CALLAHAN, PHD, HEATHER LEONARD, MED, RDN, AND TAMBERLY POWELL, MS, RDN
Figure 4.31. Names of sugar commonly added to food.
We find added sugars in some expected places, like cookies, ice cream, and soda, but there
can also be a surprising amount of added sugar in yogurt, breakfast cereals, energy bars, and
plant-based milk alternatives, like soy milk. We also find added sugars hiding in unexpected
places, like ketchup, salad dressings, bread, and pasta sauce. In fact, nearly 75% of packaged
products in the U.S. food supply are now sweetened.
In general, most people don’t need to worry much about how much naturally-occurring
sugar they consume. This goes back to the fact that naturally-occurring sugars are packaged
with other nutrients. For example, a large apple contains about 23 grams of sugar, more
than half of it in the form of fructose. 1 However, it also has more than 5 grams of fiber, plus
a significant amount of vitamin C and potassium. The fiber slows down the digestion and
absorption of the sugar into your bloodstream, giving your body more time to metabolize it
and giving you a greater feeling of fullness.
A single can of soda, on the other hand, contains about 33 grams of sugar. 1 It’s in a
similar chemical form as the sugar in the apple—a mix of fructose and glucose—but it’s not
accompanied by any fiber to slow down digestion. Therefore, it’s rapidly absorbed into your
bloodstream, and your body has to quickly metabolize the fructose to glucose and increase
insulin secretion to process the spike in sugar. Plus, although the soda contains 150 calories
and the apple has just 116, the apple is probably going to leave you feeling more satisfied
and less hungry compared with the soda.
For all of these reasons, it’s the added sugars that we worry about, not the naturallyoccurring
ones. That said, there is room for some added sugar in a balanced diet, and you