Sugar may be okay in moderation, but one person’s idea of moderation is different from another’s.  In fact, the average American consumes 22 to 30 teaspoons of added sugars a day.  That’s not moderation. Not even close according to current guidelines which suggest limiting added sugars to 6 1/2 teaspoons a day for women and 9 1/2  for men.

All of this excessive sugar in the American diet is a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.  And the nation’s children, adolescents, and young adults are developing these chronic diseases at much younger ages than previous generations.

How to cut back on the sweet stuff?  Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Read labels & ingredient lists to find hidden sugar sources.
Added sugars would be any source of  sugar aside from those naturally occurring in whole fruit, milk, and plain yogurt.  Sugars have a variety of names, but all pack in around 45-60 calories per tablespoon.  Examples are agave syrup or nectar, apple or grape juice concentrate, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, invert sugar, honey, jellies, jams, maple syrup, molasses, preserves, and of course, table, confectioner’s, baker’s, and powdered sugar. Basically, ingredients with the words juice, syrup, nectar, and words ending in “-ose” indicate sugar.  Even organic and natural sugars are still sugars and contribute extra calories to the diet.

2. Eat your fruit, don’t drink it.
The natural sugars in fruit don’t count towards the 6-9 1/2 teaspoon recommendation, but juices are more concentrated than fresh fruit, making them higher in calories, and many do have added sugars.  Fruit smoothies?  Don’t even go there.  One cup of fresh or frozen strawberries has less than 90 calories, but a strawberry smoothie can tip the scales at 500+ calories and can be loaded with added sugars.  Eat 2 cups of fresh fruit per day, and skip all other juices, fruit drinks, smoothies, juice bars, etc.

3. Leave those fancy coffees alone.
Drink coffee or lattes with skim milk and only 1 pump or packet of sugar.  Coffee itself only has 5-10 calories per cup, but fancy coffee drinks are major sources of excessive sugar (flavor syrups, chocolate, caramel, etc) and can range anywhere from 250-600 calories. Plus they’re expensive–switching from $5 lattes to $2 cups of coffee will save you hundreds of dollars and thousands of calories per year. Use that savings to buy a new clothes to show off that slimmer figure.

4. Limit the variety of sweets & candy in the home or work space.
Studies show that people will eat more if there’s a variety to chose from.  For example, if there’s ice cream, candy kisses, and chocolate chip cookies laying around, you will eat more than if just one is available.  Why do we do this?  Perhaps it was our ancestors’ way of ensuring a balanced diet: a variety of food increased the variety of nutrients.  But this behavior is not helpful when is comes to sweets.

5. Sharing makes life sweeter.
Split desserts, cookies, cupcakes, pastries, muffins, and donuts with a fellow diner or co-worker.  Very few of us have room in our diets for regular 500-700 calorie treats, but the occasional 250-350 calorie indulgence is much more manageable.

If you want to make room for more sugar in your diet, you’ll have to burn more calories through daily physical activity.  For example, the average woman would need to run (not jog) for about 45-75 minutes to burn off a 400-700 calorie cupcake from Crumbs or a full hour for a 500-calorie frappucino from Starbucks.  Lace up those running shoes!