10 Sweet Snacks to Always Leave on Grocery Store Shelves
If you find you're giving in to your sweet tooth more often than you probably should, it's time to break the habit. While enjoying some of the sweet stuff daily is OK (fruit is loaded up with natural sugar, after all!), you'll want to watch your added sugar consumption. The American Heart Association recommends men should consume no more than 36 grams of added sugar per day, and women shouldn't have more than 25 grams per day. That sounds reasonable, but it's been proven that American adults consume an average of 77 grams of sugar per day. This adds up to around 60 pounds of added sugar annually.
Yikes.
And one study found a link between added sugar and heart disease. The participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease compared to those who consumed less than 10% added sugar. Not so sweet when you think about it.
So to help you best keep on course with your daily sugar limits, we rounded up the overly sweet snack options that are loaded up with sugar. This way, when you're grocery shopping, you know which foods to never put in your cart. Keep these sugary foods out of your kitchen and instead, stock up on any of The 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now.
Ocean Spray Craisins Blueberry Juice Infused
You would think dried fruit is a safe snack choice, right? Well, this bag of blueberry-juice-infused fruits has been combined with added sugars and is serving up 29 grams of the sweet stuff. When in doubt, just munch on some actual blueberries.
Little Debbie Zebra Cakes
Zebra Cakes might've been a lunchbox staple when you were a kid, but this is one snack best left as a beloved childhood memory. Each pack in the box comes with two snack cakes, so one serving is more than 300 calories, packing 14 grams of fat, and more sugar than three Original Glazed Krispy Kreme donuts. Plus, there is virtually no fiber in these cakes, which means you'll be hungry again not too long after eating a pack.
Nature's Bakery Double Chocolate Brownie Bar
Nature Bakery's brownies are made with real cocoa, dates, and whole wheat, but don't be fooled. Just one of these is loaded up with 20 grams of sugar.
Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino
Sometimes, you just want a drink to enjoy when the hunger hits. And a bottled coffee drink does sound appetizing. Starbucks' Bottled Mocha Frappuccino, though, is not the best option, as it's packing 31 grams of sugar. That's just one drink and not factoring in if you decide to eat something alongside this beverage. If you're looking for the caffeine kick, you're much better off brewing your own iced coffee!
Yoplait Whips! Sea Salt Caramel
Right here you have a prime example of a seemingly healthy food that's in disguise. Yogurt has plenty of health benefits, but Yoplait's Whips look more like a dessert with the 24 grams of sugar it's packing.
If you're looking to cut back on your sugar consumption, check out the science-backed way to curb your sweet tooth in 14 days.
Quaker Simply Granola Oats, Apples, Cranberries & Almonds
Granola is another one of those foods that seems like it would be a safe snack option, but Quaker's Simply Granola clearly proves otherwise. Just one serving has 17 grams of sugar, which is more than you would get from one serving of Oreo cookies.
3 Musketeers Candy Bar
You might be surprised that a 3 Musketeers bar knocks you back 240 calories and 36 grams of sugar, making it one of the sugariest foods in America! And sorry to break this to milk chocolate fans, but snacking on it can lead to weight gain, as found in a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sour Patch Kids
You should know by now that indulging in candy is obviously going to up your sugar count for the day. But Sour Patch Kids are one candy you're better off not choosing. Anyone who has ever eaten one of these sour-then-sweet candies knows it's nearly impossible to just eat one or two as they're just so small. And one serving alone has 24 grams of sugar—imagine how much is in a whole box!
Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix
Trail mix can be healthy, but most store-bought versions fall in the "leave that on the shelf" category. Archer Farms Monster Trail Mix has everything you would expect in a Monster Cookie—peanuts, M&M's, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and raisins. So it comes as no surprise that it's packing 17 grams of sugar in just one serving.
Blue Bunny Triple Chocolate Explosion Bunny Snacks
These frozen snacks from the one and only Blue Bunny are small, so they seem a better snack option than breaking out a pint of ice cream. But the triple chocolate explosion is overload. It's made up of a chocolate chip cookie that is filled with chocolate frozen dairy dessert, brownie fudge sauce, and has chocolate cookies pieces covered with chocolate flavored coating drizzled with chocolaty ribbon. Each pack of two cookies has more sugar than you would get if you ate one and half Hershey's chocolate bars…
