How much sugar is in my smoothie?

What your teaspoons mean

Look at the added stack first. The sugar in whole fruit and plain milk comes packed with fiber, protein, potassium and water, and the guidelines don't count it as added. The added part is the honey, syrup, turbinado and juice concentrate, and 10 g, about two and a half teaspoons, is the most the US guidelines allow in a whole meal. If your added stack passes that line, the fix is to leave the sweetener out and let a frozen banana or mango do the job. If it's all fruit and milk, keep it to two portions of fruit and you're fine.

How it counts

Teaspoons = grams of sugar ÷ 4.2, the weight of a level teaspoon of sugar in USDA's records. A 12 oz can of cola has 37 g, about 9 teaspoons. A USDA sugar cube is 2.3 g, so two cubes are about a teaspoon.

Which sugar counts

The 2025 to 2030 US guidelines count honey, syrups, juice concentrate and table sugar as added sugar and set 10 g as the most for one meal. "Some foods and drinks, such as fruits and plain milk, have naturally occurring sugars. The sugars in these foods are not considered added sugars." So a 20 oz Caribbean Way's 83 g is about 20 teaspoons, 12 of them added, more than two cans of cola, and the strawberry banana yogurt glass's 40 g all come from the fruit and milk.