Sugar Consumption Facts & How Addicting It Really Is [Infographic]

I have to admit, I am addicted to chocolate. I don’t eat as much now as I have in other times of my life, but every once in a while, my sweet tooth needs to be satisfied. There have been many infographics about sugar and the effects it has on us. There’s no doubt sugar has both positive and negative effects on the person who consumes it. What are the positive effects? When you need a little bit of energy because maybe you are working late, a chocolate bar, a soda or pretty much anything that has sugar in it is a great energy booster. But the negative effects of sugar consumption can have some serious ramifications on your health if you consume a lot of it over a long period of time.

Do you know how much sugar the average American consumes? Would you believe me if I told you the average American consumes 3,550 pounds of sugar during his or her lifetime? It’s quite a lot, don’t you think? Just to give you an idea of how much that is, it would amount to around 1,767,900 Skittles. What I am a little bit surprised about is that the American Heart Association recommends no more than 9.5 teaspoons a day. That’s still a lot, don’t you think? Remember, we’re talking about pure sugar.

There is of course sugar in pretty much everything we eat these days, so when they say it’s recommended that we don’t eat more than 9.5 teaspoons of sugar per day, they essentially mean we need to eat a lot of vegetables in order to phase out some of that sugar. But there are of course alternatives that we can choose in order to prevent ourselves from eating too much sugar. Honey is a great substitute for sugar, and if you use a lot of sugar in your tea for example, you could try honey instead.

This new infographic from Online Nursing Programs will give you an idea about just how much sugar Americans consume and what health effects it could have on you. The only other food additive that Americans consume more than sugar is salt, which of course isn’t too shocking. Soda makes up a lot of America’s sugar consumption, and the average American drinks 53 gallons of soda per year. That’s a lot of soda. When it comes to soda though, I am quite sure there are plenty of countries in the world where people consume a lot of it.

The thing with sugar is that if you consume it for a long period of time, it becomes an addiction. It’s an addiction that has been proven to have the same hold on you as cocaine. Sounds pretty scary, right? Getting off sugar is not exactly the easiest of things to do. Your body has to make a lot of adjustments when you quit or lower your sugar consumption. However, it is necessary to lower your sugar consumption if you want to prevent your body from attracting a lot of annoying health issues. But then again, cocoa has been proven to do a lot of good in the body, so eating dark chocolate with as little sugar in it as possible could do you good. When you look at sugar consumption like this, you really have to look at the positive effects of cocoa versus the negative effects of sugar consumption in order to decide what is best for you. Only you can decide if you want to eliminate it all together.