Sugar, sugar, it's everywhere – scary but true. Americans are wired for sugar and it's in so much of our food. But is it as bad as researchers are telling us? The internet is filled with Web sites listing hundreds of reasons why people should limit their sugar intake, but what's the truth?

One particular website lists over 150 reasons not to eat sugar, ranging from the potential of sugar weakening your eyesight to causing a copper deficiency. If you think that sounds far-fetched, you're probably right. But there may be some very scary truths between the extremes.

One is about the amount of sugar we eat. The average American eats between 25 to 30 teaspoons of sugar a day in all of the foods that we eat. That adds up to a whopping 400 to 480 extra calories that most of us don't or can't afford to consume.

Much of this extra sugar is "hidden" in the processed foods that we eat, many of them deemed to be healthy. For example, a fast food sweetened iced tea has a heaping 16 teaspoons of sugar.

The next time you're ready to buy a product pick up the package and read the nutritional statistics on the label. Find the sugar grams and divide that number by 4. That will tell you how many teaspoons of sugar there are in every serving of the food you're thinking about buying.

Okay, so a food has a lot of extra added sugar, but does it affect your health?

The simple answer is yes. In fact, a new report by the American Heart Association is encouraging all Americans to dramatically reduce their sugar intake. The new recommendation is 100 calories a day of added sugar for women and 150 calories a day for men, a far cry from what we we're currently eating every day.

Why the new recommendation from the heart association? Added sugars may raise the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer and gout. It raises triglycerides, increases your blood pressure and makes your waist "fluffy."

So what should you do?

• The less the better: Women should stick to around 100 a calories of added sugars (6 ½ teaspoons or 25 grams) daily. Men should limit added sugar to 150 calories a day.

• Watch the sugared drinks and juices.

• Don't worry about the "natural" sugars in fruit and dairy.

• Don't be fooled by labels that say low-fat and heart healthy, they may be your worst offenders.

www.lmhospital.org