Written by by Brian Santos, CNN
Nine out of 10 Americans don’t know how much sugar is in their favorite snack.
From granola bars to candy bars to fruit, Americans consume hundreds of millions of tons of sugar each year. Now a new, online retail platform is here to help us out, launching and cataloging all the sugar labels — top to bottom — from around the world.
Pop quiz: Is sugar orange? What about purple? How about pink? Is their tubers sweet or sour?
This is all part of the popular evented Foodiness.com , created by an Atlanta-based graphic designer, Philip Day. The site showcases sugar consumption around the world, a scary figure he says “can’t be stopped.”
A typical daily intake of sugar can vary from 150 grams — equivalent to 21 canisters of non-diet soda — to 3,000 grams, equivalent to seven cans of Coke, Day said.
Products from around the world — some with catchy names, others with monikers that reveal little, like Old Spice Plug Power — are provided in a couple of categories: brands and shapes, and products and elements.
Day, who bought nearly 60,000 sugar labels — over a year — in order to catalog his country’s sugar intake, is currently working on translating the site into three languages, adding localizations and discussion around their history and place in the world.
He is also working with a plant-based sugar specialist to create a device that cuts the sugar out of products.
Day admits that he’s also hoping to sell his sugar labels in stores. “I’ve had emails from the guy who sells some of my Italian labels saying, ‘Can you guys put them in my store? It would be great if people know what you are selling.'”
He says the site is already making a positive impact on consumers.
“I definitely get a number of inquiries daily, asking for more types of sugar or a better way to filter labels,” he said.
The site also highlights ways to counter that sugar’s negative effects on body weight and mental health, although how sugar-centric and comprehensive its content might be remains to be seen.
Are there any tricks you use to counteract sugar in your diet? We want to hear about it in the comments below.