How to Find Sugar Contents of Food

A 2005 study performed by the Institute of Medicine shows that high sugar intake can lead to health problems ranging from obesity to diabetes and heart disease. Monitoring the foods that you eat for their sugar content is one way to make sure that the amount of sugar that you eat is within healthy levels. Most foods provide this information as part of their Nutrition Facts label. By analyzing this information, you can learn how much sugar is in a particular food.

Things You'll Need

• Food package
• Calculator

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Instructions

• 1

  Find the Nutrition Facts section on the food package. This will be a rectangular box with black type and a white background.

• 2

  Find the entry for "Sugars" under the entry for "Total Carbohydrates." The sugar content in the food will be expressed in grams, for instance "10g" to indicate 10 grams of sugar.

• 3

  Compare the total grams of sugar with the total weight of the suggested serving size. This will help you determine what portion of the food, by weight, is sugar. You can find the percentage of the product's mass made from sugar by dividing the total grams of sugar by the total serving size.