By Karen Kaplan, Tribune Newspapers March 27, 2012 Children and
teens are consuming too much added sugar in their diets,
according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Nearly one in every six calories they eat and
drink comes from some type of added sugar. This finding isn't
exactly surprising, but it's worth looking at some of the
statistics to appreciate the magnitude of the problem. The data
here is on U.S. kids between the ages of 2 and 19, culled from
the government's National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey: Average number of calories' worth of added sugar
consumed by boys each day. For girls, the daily average was 282.
The proportion of total daily calorie consumption for boys that
came from added sugar (for girls, 15.5 percent). The 2010
Dietary Guidelines recommend that no more than 15 percent of
daily calories come from "discretionary" foods such as added
sugar and solid fats. Percentage of calories from added sugar
that came from food; 41 percent from beverag