Discussion: Sugar Surprises

Purpose: Future health care professionals need to become comfortable sharing information about food and nutrition. In doing so, students must be sure to use reliable sources of information, interpret that information accurately, and communicate it clearly. These discussions will allow you to practice the skills that are used when educating clients about the connections between lifestyle and health.

The length of your response should be sufficient to respond in a clear and detailed manner, but should not wander from the focus of the prompt. It is recommended that your response stay in the 100-250 word count range.

Task: Read the following webpage, which outlines the American Heart Association’s guidelines for added sugars:

Find a food or drink you regularly consume with a surprising (high) amount of added sugar.

In the reply to this discussion, post the following:

1) a photo of the item and its food label (please embed and make sure your image is large enough to read)

2) the following information (even if it is on the label, you need to type it out):

• complete name of the product
• the serving size (NOT servings per container):
• grams of added sugar per serving:
• teaspoons of added sugar per serving

Be sure to do the math correctly! Do not include the natural sugar from fruit or milk. If the product is not using the new food label, you may need to do some research to determine how much added sugar is in each serving. (Hint: Do not Google the answer! Use the math described in the lecture: grams of added sugar /4 = teaspoons of added sugar).

3) How does this item fit into your limit for added sugar established by the American Heart Association?

4) What would be a healthier alternative?