this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Look at how much sugar is in the food you eat every day, then look up how much sugar you are recommended to consume every day. There isn't a daily value % next to the sugar content on food labels.
Honestly, I'm not sure how much nutrition labels can even do for this problem. I suspect very few people pay much attention to the labels. Perhaps the size of the label is part of the issue? It's a great amount of information and I don't want it removed or anything, but I think what the average consumer needs is a single, prominently featured rating. Say, a letter grade. Apples might be A+, whereas a sugary (but fortified) cereal would get a D grade.
I never considered the lack of %DV. That really is wack as fuck.
It's not just the sugar content either, the type of sugar matters a great deal. High fructose is much worse than the same quantity of glucose.
Even if it was the "good" sugar, most food items in North America contain multiple days worth of sugar in a single serving. Most people eat multiple servings at once.
It doesn't list a DV for carbohydrates, but it does list a DV for added sugar which is the real problem. It would be really hard for someone to eat enough fruit to really overdo the sugar, but at least they'd get a lot of good fiber along with it doing so. Added sugar is just too easy a carb source but whole food sugars are pretty well balanced.
This is a topic near to my heart. As someone with Type 1 diabetes, and someone that loves fruit, I'm very good at tracking carbs and sugar in various fruits.
If you stick to fresh fruits, you're probably fine. The real concern comes when people mistake things like fruit juice or fruit that's been packaged in a can and soaking in high-fructose corn syrup for god knows how long and calling it "fruit". On things like that, hitting that daily 300g of carbs is surprisingly easy.