Sugar is a carbohydrate and is found naturally in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Sugar is also added to food and drinks to improve taste, texture, or shelf life.
Too much sugar, however, can lead to dental cavities in children, and may lead to people eating more calories than we need.
To help you make lower sugar choices, look for a new front-of-package symbol that will appear on some packaged foods in Canada. Food companies have until 2026 to add a front-of-package label that will tell you if a food is high in sugar, sodium (salt), or saturated fat.
The new nutrition label will have a black-and-white symbol of a magnifying glass and will be beside any ingredient the food is high in. This symbol can help you when you are grocery shopping, so you can choose foods that are low in sugar. Regular pop, candies, chocolates, frozen desserts, and baked goods add the most sugar to Canadians’ diets.
To lower the amount of sugar in your diet:
- Choose water to drink instead of regular pop, juice, or other sweetened drinks.
- Try baking at home and lower the amount of sugar in your recipes.
- Choose snacks such as fruit, yogurt, or nuts more often than candies, chocolates, frozen desserts, or baked goods.
- Choose plain milk or plain yogurt instead of flavoured ones. You can mix in fruit, unsweetened granola, or nut butter to plain yogurt to give it extra flavor.
- Limit the number of prepackaged foods you eat with the “high in sugar” label.
