Sugar occurs naturally in some healthy foods such as fruits (as fructose), vegetables, milk (as lactose) and grains. But various forms of processed sugar are contained in the foods we eat. This is called added sugar and chances are, you are consuming too much of it.

While added sugar has no nutritional value, it boosts flavor, acts as a preservative and balances food's acidity. Added sugar is likely one of the factors in the rising obesity rates in the United States. Over-consumption can also contribute to tooth decay and poor nutrition.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not have specific recommendations on how much sugar you should consume, but their guidelines suggest that you should aim to spend only a certain number of discretionary calories on added sugar. If you eat a 2,000-calorie diet, which is recommended for women who weigh 150 pounds, only 267 calories of that should be used on sugary snacks or alcoholic drinks which contain added sugar.

The American Heart Association (AHA) goes one step further, recommending that you spend half of your discretionary-calorie allowance on sugar, suggesting that most American women should spend no more than 100 calories a day on added sugar, while men should aim for no more than 150 calories. That's about six teaspoons of added sugar or 24 grams a day for women. Americans currently consume about 22 teaspoons of sugar. To get an idea about where all that sugar is coming from, just remember: Regular sodas contain eight teaspoons of sugar.

To reduce your sugar intake, cut out non-diet sodas, cookies, cakes and candy.

Once you've altered your eating habits, try a fitness routine to lose weight.

If sugar were crack I'd probably be street walking to get it. Hi, my name is Karla and I'm an addict -- sugar addict, that is. I am certain that I've lived mostly unaware of this addiction until now. Having been a consistent companion of mine for many years, I don't think I ever seriously considered giving sugar up until I began to read about its many adverse affects.

Now that I've started digging on my own to get the skinny on sugar, I know that the sweet stuff can sour my health. With this new-found revelation, I decided to try and lay off of added sugar for three days to start, in hopes of maybe saying goodbye forever.

My first shocker came at breakfast of the first day. My morning starter of Dannon Light n' Fit Yogurt only has 80 calories so surely it must be harmless. Upon closer inspection of the label, I saw that it contained 11 grams of sugar and fructose as the third ingredient. I decided it wasn't harmless after all. I opted for grapes instead and enjoyed them just as much. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Late in the day when I usually stop by the office candy drawer, however, I began to salivate.

On any given day you can see people in New York City who are, "not quite right." One morning on my way to work, one such individual was standing on the subway platform loudly proclaiming that the white conspiracy would kill us all. Thinking that he was another loon spouting black power rhetoric, I kept walking to catch my train. As I continued on my way, I heard him say, "Sugar is the silent killer. You thought it was salt, but it's really sugar."

His words about the white conspiracy had nothing to do with race, but everything to do with the dangers of sugar. He said that salt was a diversion to keep us blindly consuming sugar in large amounts. I thought, wow, what an odd thing to preach about in a subway station. He was so adamant about sugar's dangers that I decided to see if there was any truth to what he had to say.

I do not need a study from Harvard to tell me that sugar is addictive. I know this personally as I now realize that I struggle with my own sugar consumption far more than I realize. When I started digging on the subject, I found quite a few things about sugar to be extremely surprising.

Americans are consuming way too much sugar -- about 22 teaspoons a day, to be exact. Since The American Heart Association suggests consuming no more than 100 calories of sugar a day (that's six teaspoons), FitSugar offers some tips for lightening up on the sweet stuff. Even though Halloween may not be the easiest time to lighten up on sugar, the bulk of our fructose and sucrose intake actually comes from our regular diet and beverage choices.

Cut back slowly, they say, and start with weening yourself off the sugar you add to foods. No more spoonfuls in your coffee and less on your cereal, OK? It's also not a bad idea to choose your daily sugar vice -- allow yourself one bowl of ice cream after dinner, but don't indulge during the rest of the day. Watch out for natural sugars, too, like brown sugar and molasses. And steer clear of liquid sugars -- one 12-ounce can of Coke has a whopping 40 grams of sugar!

We know, it's hard to cut back on something so yummy -- sugar is addictive, after all, but maybe this book can help.

Need to slim down? There's one surefire way -- slashing sugar.

Enjoy a bite, then put your fork down. Photo: ~ www.davidleetong.com ~, Flickr

The American Heart Association is now urging everyone to cut back on sugar intake. Easier said than done, since sugar is present in many food items, like commercially packaged bread. Still, you should try, because Americans are consuming an average of 22 teaspoons a day.

FitSugar is talking about slashing sugar from your diet, and if you jump on board, it could save more than your heart -- it could help trim your waistline, too.

Here's what you want to do: Cut back on added sugars -- those found in your favorite soda, that gooey piece (or two) of chocolate cake, the candy that sits in a bowl on your desk. Don't worry about natural sugars found in fruit, veggies or dairy products. Just pay attention to food labels and nix all products that list the bad guys: Sugar, corn syrup, fructose, dextrose, molasses or evaporated cane juice.

Ladies, the AHA recommends you limit your sugar intake to 6 teaspoons (100 calories) a day. If for nothing else, do it to save your skin.

Photo: Bekathwia, Flickr

If you're trying to lose a few pounds, trading your regular soda for the diet version could be doing more harm than good. True, swapping a can of Coke Zero for the regular kind slices 139 calories from your daily intake, but research from the University of Liverpool in England suggests that your body processes artificial, calorie-free sweeteners the same way it does regular sugar.

Just as your taste buds can't differentiate between regular and artificial sweeteners (aside that chemically aftertaste), the receptors in your intestines aren't able to tell the difference either. Once the intestines sense sweetness, they seek out glucose to absorb. So even though that Equal is calorie-free -- your body may still take calories from somewhere else if these receptors are activated.

"Artificial sweeteners can also activate the glucose sensor and increase the capacity of the intestine to absorb more sugar," Soraya Shirazi-Beechey, lead author of the study and a professor of Molecular Physiology and Biochemistry at Liverpool University, tells the Daily Mail. "If someone wants to lose weight, I don't think artificial sweeteners are going to help," she says. "My recommendation is to eat natural foods, but to eat less of them."

It's unclear from Shirazi-Beechey's research whether the amount of glucose absorbed after sensing an artificial sweetener would equal the calorie-equivalent of a regular soda.

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Fructose-sweetened dessert Photo: dizznbonn, Flickr

Unless you've been away from television, newspapers and computers for the last couple of years, you've probably heard that high-fructose corn syrup is bad news. Well, it is.

But it's not just high-fructose corn syrup -- it's fructose as an added sweetener (in any form), and the problem is not just that it contributes to weight gain (which it does, by the way).

Back in 1977, average daily consumption of fructose was about 37 grams per person per day. Recent surveys show that it's up to 54.7 grams, or about 10 percent of total caloric intake. And for teenagers -- who consume a ton of soda -- fructose intake averages a whopping 72.8 grams, the equivalent of 18 spoonfuls of the stuff every single day.

Why should we care?

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Trying to lose weight in a hurry? Most of us will cut out carbs like pasta, sugar and potatoes, but recent reports warn you should not be so hasty -- while the pasta and sugar can probably go, potatoes are actually a powerful weight loss tool.

Here's the thing: Most people assume potatoes will make them fat because they're typically regarded as having a high glycemic index. But according to a study by the British Journal of Nutrition, this is technically not true -- the GI of a potato depends on the type and how it's cooked. Plus, experts are quick to point out that potatoes aren't in the same carbohydrate league as sugary sweets and refined flour -- eating them will help you stay full longer than you would eating simple carbs like sugar.

Still not convinced that potatoes are for you? Here are some spud stats to keep in mind:

Jonny Bowden, author, nutritionist and weight loss coach cuts through all the misconceptions about diet and fitness to help you transform your body, your health and your life.

Photo: TheBusyBrain, Flickr

I've ranted about high sugar cereals for years. Even those masquerading as "healthy" cereals are usually high-glycemic (meaning they raise blood sugar quickly), and they contribute to weight gain, cravings and ultimately, lower energy.

And most of these cereals are fiber lightweights, despite the fact that we're constantly being sold on the notion of cereals as "high fiber" foods. With the exception of Fiber One, UltraFiber, Bran Flakes and a few others, most commercial cereals only contain a gram or two of fiber, which is one of the reasons they're so "high glycemic" in the first place.

Now a new study has shown that high-glycemic foods like cornflakes are not only bad for the waistline -- they're also bad for the heart.

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Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider. You can also follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.

Photo: D Sharon Pruitt/Flickr

Limiting sugar and carbs will help me drop belly fat – Fit or Fiction?

In his new diet book, "The Belly Fat Cure," Jorge Cruise reveals the No. 1 one secret to getting healthy – fast! "It all comes down to knowing how to eat the correct amount of sugar and carbs -- what I call the S/C Value. Without this ratio, you will fail to produce the hormone leptin, and you will store belly fat," Cruise tells readers. A client of his who went on the diet lost an unprecedented 13 pounds in one week as a result of eating chocolate, Dortitos and ice cream.

Crave-NX surprised me. I honestly expected it not to work, at best, or at worst, to not like using it. But it did manage to take the edge off my between-meal cravings, and it wasn't an unpleasant experience after all. Here's what I liked about Crave-NX:

• It comes in a small bottle that's perfect for sticking in a purse or pocket.
• It's relatively inexpensive, at $7.77 per bottle.
• It's got a decent flavor and is easy to use.
• It's works fairly quickly.

I'm a notorious sugar addict, but if you've ever given up processed carbs or sweets, you know that after the first three or four days, it gets a lot easier. I can see Crave-NX being a crutch during that "detox" period, until the cravings get easier to handle.

Obviously, if you're going to try Crave-NX, it's a use-at-your-own-risk kind of situation. And that, perhaps, is the biggest negative I could find about the product. Their website is curiously free of information about how Crave-NX really works or even an ingredients list. A friend suggested to me that maybe Crave-NX works because I think it's supposed to. I hadn't considered that, but the placebo effect could be a factor here.

I'm very cautious about using products when I don't know what's in them or what they might do to me when I take them, so if I was simply a consumer who stumbled across the Crave-NX website, I probably wouldn't buy it because of that lack of information. When I emailed the company to ask for more information, they did send along an ingredients list, as well as a small study, but I still got no clear information on how Crave-NX works in the body to prevent hunger and product is not FDA approved.

As Jonny reminded us a couple of weeks ago, despite its "all-natural" status, we still need to keep sugar at arm's length. Held up to its competitor, high fructose corn syrup, it might look like the lesser of two evils. But just because it's a "better" choice, doesn't make it a good choice. Sugar is still empty calories no matter how you look at it.

Sometimes, though, the food that sugar is wrapped in is not. For instance, Oreo cookies are a clear-cut food to avoid and eat only in moderation. But apples have sugar and are rich in fiber, vitamin and minerals too.

That's not the only surprising thing about sugar. Think you know everything there is to know about the sweet stuff? Take this sugar facts quiz from AOL Health and you might be surprised by what you learn about sugar, sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners.

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Sugar lovers want to have their cake ... but they want it to be calorie-fee, too. Despite the fact that sugar's back in fashion -- namely for its "all-natural status" -- the hunt continues for a sweetener that tastes good and is calorie-free.

Some think stevia might just be that. Stevia comes from the plant of the same name (it's sometimes called the sugarleaf plant), and its extract is 300 times sweeter than sugar. Because it comes from a plant, it can be marketed as "all-natural." Truvia, one of the brand names stevia is sold under, even comes in a pretty little green packet that screams "natural," especially when placed next to Sweet 'N Low's pepto pink.

Stevia's been around a while -- it's been heavily used in Japan for years -- but was only approved by the FDA for use as a sweetener late last year. Now it's poised to go up against other no-calorie superstars like Splenda, Equal and Sweet N' Low. The competition is tough, but given stevia's "all-natural" claims, it's poised to find a niche in the market. Truvia and Purevia, two brand names, are showing up in cleverly-named products like Sprite Green and Trop50 (orange juice, water and stevia).

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A club sandwich just happens to be one of my favorite menu items, and here's why I rarely order it: Martha says a club contains a whopping 1,030 calories. Next time I want to indulge, I'm sharing it with someone else!

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Jonny reminds us that in the battle between high fructose corn syrup and sugar, there are no winners. Both should be avoided when possible and enjoyed only in moderation.

See a salad on a fast food menu? It might actually cause you to eat fries instead. Don't let the notion of healthy food make you let your guard down. Order it, eat it and be healthy instead.

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Good on you, That's Fit readers! Forty six percent of you keep a diet diary. That's a great way to keep track of calories and not let mindless eating get away from you.

Do you have a fitness buddy? I tried it for a week, and it really is a great motivational tool. Try calling up one of your friends this weekend and commit to a shared workout.

Have a great weekend, everyone!