The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests an added-sugar limit of 24 grams (6 cubes/ teaspoons of sugar) for women and 36 grams (9 cubes / teaspoons) for men.
Note this is the maximum limit, ideally you should not consume more than this amount.
However some of your favorite snacks and fizzy drinks already has this in one serving.
Here are simple ways to tell the quantity of sugar in packaged food products:
1. Read the nutrition facts label
Remember to always read your labels.
This is usually located at the back of the packaged product.
2. Check the grams of sugar per serving
This is usually known as “sugars” or “of which sugars” under carbohydrates. Please note that the sugars in this section is per serving.
This means that if the product size 250grams and serving size is 10grams(1 tablespoon) then the nutrition fact detail is 1 tablespoon.
3. Do your math
One cube of sugar(1 tablespoon) is 4grams so divide total grams of sugar per serving by 4 on the nutrition fact table.
Example: A snack that has 36grams of Sugar per serving divided by 4= 8 cubes of sugar
This way you can easily picture the quantity of sugar in that snack.
Now that you know the right thing, what will you do differently going forward?
Remember to always read your food labels and let that guide you in making food choices.
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