Added Sugar Rant

OK, tiny rant.

I'm diet conscious, though not doing a great job of regulating things right now.
STILL...I see that I should limit my "added sugars" to 6 teaspoons a day.
Fine.  But unless I'm the only adding these, and using a teaspoon measure, that doesn't help me.

On food labels sugar is listed in GRAMS, not teaspoons.  While, yes, it is easier for me to picture teaspoons, I doubt it is for people who don't cook much.  JUST TELL ME HOW MANY GRAMS!!!

Cripes.

So, I googled it.
A teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams.
That means 24 grams of added sugar, or less, is best.  It has to do with insulin resistance, satiety, diabetes, obesity, etc.  So it's fairly important.

Unfortunately, food labels do not require the added sugars to be listed separately and hence people think the naturally occurring sugars in things like beans and carrots and sweet potatoes are the same.  Yes, they are sugars, but since they come in a giant fiber filled package compared to straight sugar added (and by "sugar" I include all the forms from cane sugar, beet sugar, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup, honey, maltose, dextrose, sucrose...most of your "...ose" ingredients.  Find a list and learn it) to a processed food.

Like I bet that ALL of the sugars in a cola are added since the other primary ingredient would be water.  No sugar in "water" until it is put in.

I think the best way for me to learn to limit added sugars is to eat actual food.  Like produce, meat, dry beans, nuts, fish, and grains bought as grains and flour.  I'm not saying I'll NEVER eat processed food etc or that I can hit that 24 grams of added sugars or less every day, but it's a good target.

I've been off target on my eating since last fall and need a reset.  Might as well do it now.
It's a simpler way to eat and if it  helps my health, then it is definitely cost effective.

A good movie about this, though they don't make clear the grams of sugar per teaspoon, is "Fed Up" which I recently watched.  Here's the trailer: