"We've written lots lately about the potentially addictive qualities of sugar and the public policy efforts to limit consumption."

"Now comes a new study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, which finds that Americans who consumed the most sugar — about a quarter of their daily calories — were twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who limited their sugar intake to 7 percent of their total calories."

"To translate that into a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, the big sugar eaters were consuming 500 calories a day from sugar — that's 31 teaspoons. Those who tamed their sweet tooth the most, by contrast, were taking in about 160 calories a day from sugar — or about 10 teaspoons per day."

"Unfortunately, most Americans have a sugar habit that is pushing toward the danger zone."

"'The average American is consuming 22 teaspoons a day. That's about three times what's recommended,' says Laura Schmidt of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine."