52 Adventures in Food and Nutrition
Discuss: What does trade-off mean? Think about high-fat food
you might eat today. How can you trade off to balance out your fat
intake for the rest of the day?
Note: Some people believe sugar causes children to be
hyperactive. However, scientifi c research shows sugar does not
have this effect. Frequently, environmental infl uences (birthday
parties, holidays) that happen to coincide with sugar eating excite
children and cause them to be hyperactive.
3-3 3-3
Reduce fat Reduce fat
intake by trimming fat from intake by trimming fat from
meat. Too much fat in your diet can put meat. Too much fat in your diet can put
you in danger of developing diet-related you in danger of developing diet-related
diseases diseases
3-4 3-4
Sugar adds many calories to the dietsdiets Sugar adds many calories to the
of Americans.Americans. of
• Limit egg yolks to one per day.
• Serve fruit, sugar-free fruit ices, and
fat-free frozen yogurt for dessert.
• Snack on pretzels or air-popped
popcorn instead of potato chips.
• Use low-fat or fat-free margarine
instead of butter and choose soft
or liquid types instead of stick
margarine.
Sugar
Many people in the United States eat
more sugar than is healthful. The average
person eats about 142 pounds of sugar
each year. At 15 calories per teaspoon, that
adds up to over 600 calories from sugar
each day, 3-4. In a year, that is more that
219,000 calories!
A diet high in sugar is likely to be
missing vital nutrients or have too many
calories. For instance, suppose you need
2,200 calories each day. If you spend 600
calories on sugar, you have only 1,600
calories left to pack in all the nutrients you
need. If you eat the extra 600 calories on
top of the 2,200, you will gain weight. An
extra 600 calories a day can add up to a
weight gain of 62 pounds a year.
Eating large amounts of sugary foods
can cause tooth decay, too. The more often
you eat sugary foods and the chewier the
foods, the more likely you are to have cavi-
ties. To learn more about sugar and tooth
decay, see the Science in the Kitchen:
Sweet Tooth feature in this chapter.
How can you tell if you eat too much
sugar? The foods in the following list
contain large amounts of sugar. As you
examine the list, think about how often you
eat each food.
• soft drinks, sweetened iced tea, fruit
drinks, ades, and punches
• chocolate milk, ice cream, pudding,
fruit-fl avored yogurt, and frozen
yogurt
• pies, cakes, cookies, candies, and
other sweet desserts and snacks
• doughnuts and sweet rolls
• fruits, canned or frozen in heavy
syrup