It's probably no surprise to hear that consuming excessive amounts of sugar can have a negative effect on your health.
But what if you don't know how much you're consuming? Or how much you're child is consuming?
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There's a surprising place where information about sugar is glaringly absent.
New grandmother Nancy Brecj said she didn't believe her eyes when she couldn't find sugar listed on formula she was looking at for her granddaughter.
"We looked at all of the formulas in the grocery store, even the store brand ones, and none of them listed the sugar grams per serving. None of them," she said. "I called the company and said how many grams of sugar per serving are in your baby formula? And, ‘Well, ma'am, we don't add sugar to baby formulas.'"
But with corn syrup solids listed first in ingredients, Brecj said she wasn't buying it.
NBC reporter Lisa Parker went to an independent lab with seven popular baby formulas for testing.
Scientists did a sugar profile on each sample, testing for five types of sugar. Among the results, Enfamil Premium and Parent's Choice Premium infant formulas had the highest sugar content: 13.5 and 12.4 grams per serving.
But for the best type of sugar, lactose, the kind found in breast milk, three tested low for any sugar: Gerber Good Start, Similac Advance Complete and Enfamil Pro-Sobee.
But two, both made by Similac, did contain other added sugars.
Similac Advance Organic Complete Nutrition contained one of the sweetest kinds: Sucrose – measuring in at 3.5 grams of sugar per serving.
Similac Soy Infant formula with iron contained four kinds of added sugar, including sucrose, for a total of 3.8 grams per serving – roughly the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar every five ounces.
In Europe, concern over childhood obesity led to a ban on sucrose in baby formula.
While the number of sugar grams may be low, Pediatric dentist Dr. Kevin Boyd, who has a degree in nutrition and dietetics, said the impact on babies is huge.
"We're conditioning them to crave sweetness," he said. "They're conditioned to just really like super sweet. And their fat cells are saying more, more, more please."
Some of the formulas were so sweet tasting, Boyd calls them "baby milkshakes."
A major factor, he believes, in our country's battle with childhood obesity.
"If a child makes too many fat cells, they never go away. And they always want to be fed," Boyd said.
While the Food and Drug Administration does regulate many aspects of the formula, it does not require maker to list specific carbohydrates or sugar amounts. The agency is also silent when it comes to how much sugar is allowed.
Both the makers of Enfamil and Parent's Choice say they don't include added sugars like sucrose because they are not found in breast milk.
The maker of Similac did not respond to the report. But the International Formula Council did step in to point out sucrose has been shown to be safe in both clinical trial and years of consumer use.