Quiz: How much sugar are you really consuming?

By Fusion Staff | May 5, 2015 | 11:35am

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Everyone knows bingeing on candy all day would be unhealthy—because of all that sugar, right? But did you know there are heaps of sugar lurking in foods you might consider healthy, such as yogurt and cereal?

According to the World Health Organization, adults should only consume six to nine teaspoons of sugar per day. That’s 24 grams of sugar for women and 36 grams for men. For comparison, one can of Coca-Cola contains nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar—which is more than a day’s worth for both genders.

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But forget notoriously terrible-for-you soda—many low-fat and non-fat “diet” foods pack a ton of sugar to make up for the lack of flavor (you know, from cutting all that fat), which can make distinguishing healthy from unhealthy food difficult.

Which helps to explain why Americans are estimated to consume nearly four times as much sugar as they should (around 22 teaspoons per day). This, in turn, is leading to a host of health problems, including obesity, sugar addiction, diabetes, liver failure, heart disease, and possibly even cancer .

Think you know your sugar intake? Take our quiz and find out!

Taryn Hillin is Fusion’s love and sex writer, with a large focus on the science of relationships. She also loves dogs, Bourbon barrel-aged beers and popcorn — not necessarily in that order.