Too Many Sweets

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3 Sweet Ways to Eat Less Sugar

By RealAge

Any idea how much sugar you eat in the course of a day? The amount might startle you -- even if you don't have a soda habit or a sweet tooth, per se.

Most people take in about 430 calories of added sugar every day. That's a lot of waist-widening, nutrition-void sweetness! Here are three ways to add sweet without dipping into the sugar bowl.

3 Ways to Sweeten Stealthily
In their book, The Good Housekeeping Complete Household Handbook , the domestic experts at Good Housekeeping offer these three ideas for taking in the reins on your sugar intake:

1. In your coffee pot: Brew your morning coffee with a cinnamon stick or vanilla bean and ditch the flavored creamers. Just 1 tablespoon of flavored creamer can add 6 grams of sugar.

2. On your breakfast: Maple syrup adds about 50 calories and 12 grams of sugar per tablespoon. For a little sweet, add fresh fruit or pure fruit purees to pancakes and waffles. Or even oatmeal.

3. In cookie recipes: You can generally get away with cutting the sugar by up to a third in recipes for cookies, cakes, or other baked goods. Try experimenting with a little less of the sweet stuff on your next batch of macaroons.

The Unsweet Truth
Extra calories in sugar often turn into extra pounds, but that's not the worst of it. Studies suggest high sugar consumption could also increase the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer -- particularly pancreatic cancer.