Bittersweet Stat

Fruits are sweet because they're naturally endowed with sugars. Natural sweeteners lace even milk and various vegetable juices. However, most sugar in the diet has been deliberately added, whether it's to sweeten corn flakes or soft drinks. Boys 14 to 18 years old down the most such added sugar--a whopping 142.6 grams per day, FDA scientists reported today.

That's 21 percent of the energy consumed by boys this age. It amounts to some 570 calories per day, and is equivalent to 35.7 teaspoons of table sugar.

Beverages, especially soft drinks, accounted for most of this added dietary sugar.

Source: Kathleen C. Ellwood, et al. of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in College Park, Md., at the Experimental Biology '07 meeting, in Washington, D.C.