ALBANY, GA -
Sugar may be your favorite pick me up. But a lot of us are eating way more than we should. The typical American eats nearly 450 calories of added sugar every day.
Now some states are considering proposals to try to limit sugar intake.
The snack machine is a frequent stop for many of us, chips, candy bars, and sodas give us that quick pick me up, but are we getting too much sugar?
"Certainly our sugar consumption as you mentions is so readily available, it's so easy to go to the vending machine it's so easy to stop by the gas station and get a soda as we're heading down the road, the accessibility of sugar is so great now that that's contributing to it," said Julie Joiner, PPMH Diabetes Nutritionist
It's contributing to childhood obesity and other diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and even some cancers. Nutritionists say a lot sugar is hiding in some of the food that we think might be good for us, like orange juice or sugar substitutes like honey.
"We think of a four once glass of juice as being our serving size and most of us would give this more to our toddler, than we would, we drink a ton more ourselves so," said Julie Joiner, PPMH Diabetes Nutritionist.
Picking an option that appears to have less fat like Skittles or Three Musketeers isn't always a good trade off.
"On this one your getting only the equivalent of a couple of tubs of fat, but we're getting probably 10 or 11 packets, or teaspoons of sugar in something like this so yes it's low in fat, but our trade off is quiet a bit of sugar," said Julie Joiner, PPMH Diabetes Nutritionist
Those calories add up quickly.
"So, 3,500 calories we have to get rid of to lose just one pound of fat and this is five pounds so you can kind of imagine," said Julie Joiner, PPMH Diabetes Nutritionist.
Digging Deeper we found there are some states working to curb our sugar intake.
In Massachusetts, they're considering taxing items such as candy, soda, and other sugar sweetened drinks, then using that tax revenue to fight childhood obesity.
In Florida, a state senator proposed restricting the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from paying for items like soda, sugary treats, and other unhealthy foods. Nutritionists say it might work.
"In terms of that helping, it would be possible to see if its implemented what a difference that makes," said Julie Joiner, PPMH Diabetes Nutritionist
Nutritionists say people need to make more health conscious decisions, choosing foods without sugar like lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots and proteins.
Nutritionists say on average women should get between 1,600 - 1800 calories a day.
Men can have a little more between 2,000 and 2,400 calories a day depending on your activity level.
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