You already know that consuming too much sugar isn’t good for you, but how much is too much? According to the World Health Organization, it’s any amount more than five percent of your daily calorie intake. For a person who consumes 2,000 calories a day, that works out to 25 grams of sugar.
Twenty-five grams are actually a drop in the bucket compared to what you probably consume daily. Consider this: Your average can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar. A packet of raw sugar contains five, which means five packets in your two daily coffees put you at the daily maximum!
Worse, there’s sugar hiding in places where you wouldn’t expect it, including savory foods. Here are a few of the primary offenders:
1. Tomato Sauce
Ragù's Marinara sauce has only six grams of sugar, but things get dicier when you look at their specialty sauces. Chunky Tomato, Garlic & Onion packs 10 grams of sugar, while Ragù’s Chunky Sundried Tomato & Sweet Basil sauce contains 11 grams.
Things aren’t much different with Barilla’s tomato sauces. Its Traditional Sauce has 8 grams of sugar, and the company’s Meat Sauce has 9 grams.
2. Dried Cranberries
A quarter cup of Original Craisins (dried cranberries) packs a whopping 39 grams of sugar. That’s more than a Snickers bar.
3. Peanut Butter
Most grocery store peanut butters—including those made by JIF, Skippy, and Peter Pan—contain about three grams of sugar per two-tablespoon serving size. Three grams may not seem like much, but how often do you stick to a single serving? Yeah, we thought so.
4. Yogurt
You may be surprised to learn that Yoplait Original Strawberry contains 26 grams of sugar, or that Dannon’s Fruit on the Bottom has24 grams of the sweet stuff. That’s roughly the same as a Hershey’s bar, which is loaded up with 24 grams of sugar.
5. Applesauce
Applesauce doesn’t get its sweetness from apples alone. High fructose corn syrup drives up the sugar content of Mott’s Original applesauce to22 grams per half cup. Musselman’s Original Apple Sauce is only a tad better, with 18 grams of sugar.
6. Sports Drinks
You’ve likely already heard that sports drinks are laden with sugar…and not all that sporty. Well, it’s true—your average 20-ounce bottle of Vitaminwater contains 32 grams of sugar. That’s only slightly less than a can of Coca-Cola, which has 39 grams.
7. Fruit Juice
Tropicana Original’s No Pulp Pure Premium, the company’s standard orange juice, clocks in at 22 grams of sugar. So does the Original Orange Juice from Florida’s Natural.
Alas, sugar from fruit products is still sugar. When in doubt, most experts say, go with eating the whole fruit, rather than just juicin’.