THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR (AND SUGAR SUBSTITUTES!)

It's no secret that Americans have a serious addiction. Here's how to cut back on the sweet stuff, once and for all.

- Karen Robock

YOU'RE PROBABLY AWARE that your frothy coffee drink or bakery scone is loaded with sugar. But did you know that startling amounts of added sugar are also lurking in your breakfast cereal, dairy-free milk alternative and even takeout fried chicken?

"Americans are simply consuming too much sugar," says Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Most people consume three times the recommended daily limit of sugar. And it's not just a harmless habit.

"The research has been very consistent and the findings quite convincing that eating too much sugar can lead to a wide range of adverse health effects," says Hu.

Even if you've gotten the message that too much sugar isn't good for your health and are taking steps to cut back, like switching to "low-sugar" baked goods and diet soda, you haven't solved the issue and you may have created a new problem.

Since the 1990s, aspartame has been widely used as a sugar substitute in products such as diet drinks, yogurt and breakfast cereal. But the sweetener has come under scrutiny following a July 2023 statement from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization, that officially classified aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

So what's the answer? Ultimately, we need to rethink our relationship with the sweet stuff.

THE PROBLEM WITH SUGAR

For the most part, the sugars that naturally occur in an apple, a sweet potato or a glass of milk aren't an issue. It's the sugar introduced during the manufacturing of a jarred pasta sauce or the preparation of a muffin, or when you stir a spoonful of sugar into your coffee, for example, that's harming your health.