Sugar Substitutes

Sugar Substitutes

Sugar Substitutes
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.54

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		gums, sweeteners, tremendous, potassium, diabetics, relatively, commonly, inexpensive, frequently, substance, link, maintain, sweeten, glucose, therefore, especially
	content words:		Drug Administration, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, Diabetes Association

Print Sugar Substitutes
edHelper.com subscriber options:

	Print Sugar Substitutes (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
	Quickly print reading comprehension
	Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Sugar Substitutes

Leave your feedback on Sugar Substitutes (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Sugar Substitutes
By Jennifer Kenny

¹     So many people...so much sugar. Look around at what people are eating. Much of it includes sugar-coated breakfasts, soda, ice cream, and candy. As a result, while it may not be coming directly out of the sugar bowl, people are consuming a tremendous amount of sugar. In fact, the average American eats 20 teaspoons of sugar a day from his food choices. Forty percent of that is table sugar, sixty percent of that is corn sweetener used in sodas and other sweet drinks, and a minute amount is from things like honey.

²     When people eat all of that sugar, they are bound to gain weight from all the extra calories. Then many will decide to lose or maintain weight. However, they haven‘t lost their sweet tooth. That's where sugar substitutes, or artificial sweeteners, come in.

³     Sugar substitutes allow people to enjoy the taste of their favorite sweet foods but with lower calories. Although the Food and Drug Administration is constantly evaluating new products, it currently approves four sugar substitutes. They are saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose. Over one hundred forty million Americans use these all the time.

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

Copyright © 2008 edHelper