Here's what the maximum amount of sugar you should be eating in a day looks like

Skye Gould/Business Insider

Sugar: Love it, hate it, but you certainly can't ignore it.

The FDA proposed that nutrition labels on foods be required to list the amount of added sugar as a percentage of the recommended maximum daily intake, or about 50 grams of sugar.

Since "50 grams" isn't exactly easy to picture, we decided to show you what that looks like (based on data from the nutrition website Caloriecount.com):

Tanya Lewis contributed to an earlier version of this story.

 

A single can of soda

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If you're a fan of soda, you may want to consider kicking your habit. A 12-ounce can of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar — four-fifths of the FDA's recommended limit, while the new "cold activated" 16-ounce can has a whopping 52 grams. You might consider drinking diet soda instead, although some studies suggest diet drinks may be not be healthy either in the long run.

One fancy coffee drink

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Many of us nurse a Starbucks habit, but you may be surprised to realize just how unhealthy this can be. For example, one grande Caramel Frappuccino with whipped cream contains 52 grams of sugar — and that's all you're supposed to have all day!

Not only that, but one of these drinks contains 430 calories and 16 grams of fat — about a quarter of the recommended daily limit (and half of your daily saturated fat). The "light" frappuccino fares slightly better, with 29 grams of sugar and 140 calories.

Two yogurts

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Yogurt is one of the stealthiest places for sugar to hide. Those Yoplait yogurts your mom packed in your school lunches? Those contain about 26 grams of sugar each, which is half of your daily allowance. One yogurt contains 4.9 grams of protein, which isn't that much considering that experts say you should get about 80 grams of protein per day.

Better to stick with a plain, Greek yogurt like Chobani, which contains 14.5 grams of protein and just 4 grams of sugar.

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