Health Medical Homework Help

Where is the Sugar?

• Do you know how much sugar is in your favorite snack food?

• Do you know where to look on the food label to find out?

• If the term “sugar” is not listed, could there still be sugar in your snack food?

Check It Out:

1.Select and list three of your favorite snack foods. Insert a picture of each snack.

2.Read the ingredients list on the food label. This is found below the Daily Values table on the label.

a.Do you see the word “sugar” listed anywhere?

Sugar’s other names: brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrates, cane juice, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, and syrup.

b.Do you see any of these names listed?

3.The ingredients are listed in order from the ingredient with the highest percentage of the total weight of the product (listed first) to the ingredient with the lowest percentage of the product’s weight.

Does your product have “sugar” or one of sugar’s “other names” listed near the beginning of the ingredient list? If so, this product has a lot of sugar in it.

4.You can also check the number of grams of sugar in the product. This is found below the total carbohydrates’ information on the food label. It is recommended that you keep the total number of calories from sugar to less than 10% of your total calories. You can multiply the number of grams of sugar by 4 to get the number of calories from sugar.

5.Compare your snack food to another brand or a similar snack food that may claim to be healthier or contain less added sugar.

a. Compare any type of food for sugar content. This can help you to reduce the amount of added sugar in your diet.

b.Learn more about the sugar content of foods using the www.choosemyplate.gov website. This website will give suggestions of foods with more fiber and complex carbohydrates as opposed to foods with sugars.

Reference: Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter. Volume 22 (4) June 2004, page 3.