How much sugar...?

The first thing you need to know about sugar is that one teaspoon is about 4.2 grams. With this information, you will be empowered (and amazed and horrified) when you start to look for sugar content in Nutrition Labels on food:

• One cup of Stonyfield Vanilla organic yogurt contains  contains 30 grams of sugar—that's 7 teaspoons. 
  
• 8 oz. of Pepsi has 28 grams, according to the Pepsi web site. But a can of Pepsi is 12 oz., which means that there is 42 grams of  sugar in a can, or 10 teaspoons. 
  

The second thing you need to know is that one teaspoon of sugar has 15 calories. 

I haven't been able to find a recommended intake/limit of sugar except on weight loss web sites, which isn't helpful for me since no one in my family wants to lose weight.  So the only thing I have to go on is the MyPyramid.gov's Discretionary Calories page, which says that in a 2,000 calorie/day diet, you have 265 discretionary calories—that includes fat, alcohol and sugar. So, I guess, you could eat unsweetened and fat-free food for breakfast and lunch (yuk) and  blow all your discretionary calories on a can of soda (105 calories from sugar alone), a little gravy on your dinner entree and a dessert.

The problem with the Discretionary Calories guide is that, at least on first glance, it doesn't distinguish between calories from good fats (like olive oil) and simple sugars (like soda). And it doesn't distinguish between different kinds of sugars. I still believe that some sugars are better than others—that real maple syrup is better than a syrup made primarily from high-fructose corn syrup; and that sugar can be used appropriately—that a tsp. of honey in unsweetened yogurt is better than a tsp. of sugar on top of already-sweetened cereal. MyPyramid doesn't seem to make any distinction. 

In my effort to reduce sugars and fats in accordance with a sort-of cancer-avoidance diet I've been following (see previous post) I've cut out most sweets and desserts.  I rarely eat ice cream now; the only sweet/indulgence I have on a regular basis is a few squares a day of really dark chocolate; and I haven't drunk soda in years, except a few sips at parties when nothing else is available. 

I haven't cut out all sugars, nor have I tried to do it too rigidly. If you told me right now that I absolutely had to stop eating sugar, then I'd want it more than I do now and I'd think about it all the time. That's one reason I could never be a nun, and why I think weight-loss diets are so difficult for most people. The more you say something is off-limits, the more most people want it—which is why the diet industry is  always guaranteed to perpetuate itself. 

Sugar has a usefulness. Who wants to go through life eating bitter and sour food all the time? Figuring out when it's useful and when it's harmful is the tricky thing.