How many calories in a teaspoon of granulated sugar

Sugar can seem like a relatively low-calorie food until you consider how much of it is added to processed products. But unless you're already very familiar with cooking conversion rates, it can be difficult to tell how much of a particular ingredient or nutrient is in a product just by looking at a nutrition facts label. Nutrients in food labels are always listed in grams, which isn't helpful for figuring out how many tablespoons of something a product has -- or how many calories.

Conversion Tips

To help decipher sugar in nutrition labels, start by learning to convert grams to calories. One gram of sugar has about 4 calories in it. To visualize how much that might be, think in terms of common kitchen measurements: teaspoons and tablespoons. One teaspoon of sugar is equivalent to 4 grams and about 16 calories.

Here's the math:
4 grams of sugar/teaspoon X 4 calories/gram = 16 calories per teaspoon of sugar

Since there are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon, that means 1 tablespoon of sugar is equivalent to 12 grams of sugar and a total of about 50 calories.

Calories in Added Sugar

What about other types of sugar? Do they each have the same number of calories per tablespoon? In general, yes. Sugar that's mixed into processed foods to enhance their flavor or texture is called "added sugar." In ingredient lists, it may appear under names like dextrose, high-fructose corn syrup, maltose or evaporated cane juice.

According to the USDA, 1 tablespoon of high-fructose corn syrup has 14.5 grams of sugar and 53 calories. When compared to natural sweeteners, the numbers are similar. One tablespoon of agave nectar has about 14 grams of sugar and about 60 calories, and 1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup has 12 grams of sugar and 52 calories.

Setting Limits for Sugar

The American Heart Association recommends that women limit their added sugar consumption to about 100 calories per day, which is 2 tablespoons of sugar. For men, the recommended limit is 150 calories per day, or 3 tablespoons. However, the AHA asserts that most Americans get about 20 teaspoons of added sugar per day, which is almost 7 tablespoons and about 320 calories.

Now that you know how to calculate how many calories you're getting each day from sugar, you can use the information you find on nutrition labels to help choose lower-sugar foods and move toward making healthy changes in your diet.

White Granulated Sugar (1 Tsp)

Hilton Garden Inn

Main info:

White Granulated Sugar (1 Tsp)
Hilton Garden Inn
1 Tsp
15 Calories
4 g
0 g
0 g

0 g
0 mg
0 g
0 mg
4 g
0 g

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