According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the maximum amount of added sugars you should eat in a day are: Men: 150 calories per day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons). Women: 100 calories per day (25 grams or 6 teaspoons).

Added sugar is the single worst ingredient in the modern diet. It provides calories with no added nutrients and can damage your metabolism in the long run. Eating too much sugar is linked to weight gain and various diseases like obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease.

But how much is too much? Can you eat a little bit of sugar each day without harm, or should you avoid it as much as possible?

Here’s how to get sugar savvy and avoid sugar bombs in your diet.

1. Always read the ingredients.

Remember, they don’t have to tell you how much sugar they’ve added to a product. But they DO have to tell you what’s IN the product. That’s why you must read the ingredients list—even for “healthy” or “natural” foods like frozen fruit or flavored yogurt. The ingredient list is where you’ll be able to see in black and white whether or not there’s lots of sugar added. What’s KEY here is that you be on the lookout for added sugar by all its names and incarnations.

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