What is a safe amount of sugar per meal?

Ideally the foods you choose should have less than or equal to 8 grams of sugar per serving. Foods like dried fruits and juices may have high natural sugar content and should be avoided. Natural sugars from fruits or fruit juices do not have any fewer calories than table sugar and should not be considered low calorie substitutes. If the sugar content is high in proportion to the other carbohydrate content then it may not be a good choice.

Sugar is a carbohydrate. On food labels total carbohydrates include both complex carbohydrates such as starch and simple sugars such as table sugar and fruit sugar. For example; if a food label indicates 20 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of sugar then you know that the carbohydrates are the unhealthy kind and made mostly of sugar. Yogurt is a dairy product and sugar grams come from lactose which is milk sugar. Choose low sugar yogurts and avoid the fruit on the bottom and full fat products. It is important to ask questions and review your food diary with your dietitian.

GLOSSARY