Sugar Overload: 11 foods that pack in the sweet stuff [5-8]

5. Most sugar-packed soda

Sunkist (20-ounce bottle)

85 g sugars
325 calories
0 g fat
Sugar equivalent: 17 Chewy Chips Ahoy! Cookies

This one drink contains as much sugar as most people consume in a day—and that’s accounting for the fact that most people consume way too much of the sweet stuff. That’s because, just like the grape juice mentioned above, it’s made up mostly of water and high fructose corn syrup (only the water in this soda is carbonated). Diet Sunkist cuts out all real sugar, but you’re still better off skipping the soda altogether.

Drink This Instead!

Honest Ade Orange Mango (16.9-ounce bottle)
24 g sugars
100 calories

6. Most sugar-packed juice

Tropicana Grape Juice Beverage (15.2-ounce bottle)

72 g sugars
290 calories
0 g fat
Sugar equivalent: 4 Klondike Ice Cream Sandwiches

This beverage has more than 10 percent of your day’s calories and as much sugar as 7 glazed doughnuts. Want to know why? It’s made from just 30 percent juice (which is already naturally sweet)—but grape juice concentrate shows up third on the list of ingredients after filtered water and high fructose corn syrup. When drinking juice, opt for 100 percent, and keep portion sizes small.

Drink This Instead!

Minute Maid Mixed Berry 100% Juice (1 box, 6.75 fl oz)
23 g sugars
100 calories
0 g fat

7. Most sugar-packed kids' meal

Oscar Mayer Maxed Out Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Combo Lunchables

61 g sugars
680 calories
22 g fat (9 g saturated)
1,440 mg sodium
Sugar equivalent: 6 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

The Maxed Out line is the worst of the lackluster Lunchables, with a back label that reads like a chemistry textbook. By cramming dessert and a supersweet drink into the box, Oscar manages to saddle this already-troubled package with more added sugar than your child should take in all day.

Eat This Instead!

Oscar Mayer Cracker Stackers Lean Ham & Cheddar
6 g sugars
340 calories
19 g fat (9 g saturated)
1,110 mg sodium

8. Most sugar-packed mall snack

Auntie Anne's Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel with Sweet Dip

61 g sugars
600 calories
12 g fat (7 g saturated)
Sugar equivalent: 21 Starburst Fruit Chews

The combination of the sweetest pretzel with the sweetest dip (there are 32 grams of sugar in that little cup!) makes this the most nefarious option for your blood sugar and your choppers. Nothing trumps marinara in the battle for a better dip, but to complement the sweet flavor of a raisin pretzel, cream cheese is far safer than the other options. Cut an extra 30 calories by asking them to prepare your pretzel sans butter.

Bonus tip: See which fast-food joint made our list of the 20 Best Restaurant Meals 2009.

Eat This Instead!

Raisin Pretzel with Cream Cheese
16 grams sugars
440 calories
11 g fat (7.5 g saturated)