Sugar is the most popular ingredient added to foods in the United States. It's added to everything from sweets to processed foods to "healthy" things like peanut butter. The biggest culprit of sugar in the American diet? Soft drinks. A single teaspoon of corn syrup adds up to 20 calories.
The average American ate 2 pounds of sugar a year back in the early 1800s. That is increased to 123 pounds of sugar a year in 1970. Today? 152 pounds of the sweet stuff. That's the same as eating 3 pounds of sugar a week!
Nutritionists suggest only 10 percent of American's diets should come from sugar. Based on a 2,000 calories a day diet, that's only about 13.3 teaspoons a day. That is dwarfed by the reality of a whopping 42.5 teaspoons a day for the average American. Next time you ask for sugar in your coffee, maybe you should think twice!
