Where's the Sugar Hiding?

The simplest way to clean up any diet: Eliminate added sugars. Here's how to seek out the sweet stuff under 20 aliases.

According to a USDA survey, an average American eats 82 grams of added sugars every day. That's almost 20 teaspoons, contributing an empty 317 calories. The researchers report that 91 percent of these added sugars can be attributed to intake of regular soda (33 percent), baked goods and breakfast cereals (33 percent), candy (16 percent), fruit drinks (10 percent), and sweetened milk products (9 percent)—think chocolate milk, ice cream, and flavored yogurt.

What's not on the list? Meat, vegetables, whole fruit, and eggs, along with whole-grain and dairy products that haven't been sweetened. There's your recommended menu.

Ready to Sweep Out Added Sugar?

By simply avoiding foods that contain added sugar, you'll automatically eliminate most junk food. So your diet will instantly become healthier. And for most people, this strategy also dramatically reduces calorie intake. So you start losing weight, without counting calories or restricting entire food groups.

But knowing whether a food contains added sugar isn't always straightforward. Scanning a product's ingredients list to see if it contains sugar is smart—but you may need to expand your vocabulary. Here are 20 aliases that the sweet stuff goes by—none of which include the word sugar.