Many consumers feel pride in avoiding the glazed pastries in the supermarket and instead opting for “all natural” granola that comes packed with extra protein. Same goes for low-fat yogurts “made with real fruit,” “organic” plant-based milks and bottled “superfood” smoothies.

Buyer beware: Healthy grocery buzzwords like those often cover up an unhealthy amount of sugar.

Added sugars are difficult to quickly spot because many companies use clever marketing to distract consumers, said Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and Princeton University who has studied added sugars.

Avena said while some health-forward brands know people are starting to become aware of the hazards of added sugars, “a lot of the bigger brands don’t worry so much about people’s health.”

Here’s how to spot hidden sugars and what to do about it.

Along with saturated fat and salt, eating excess sugar is linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other health risks.

The average American consumes 17 grams of added sugar a day, which adds up to 57 pounds (26 kilograms) per year, according to the American Heart Association. About half of that comes from beverages, but much of the rest is sneaked into cereal, salsa, prepared sandwiches, dairy products, bottled sauces and baked goods, including many brands of whole-grain bread.

To help control sugar intake, start by checking the nutrition label. Since 2021, food companies have been required to list the quantity of added sugars separately from total sugar content. But the plan backfired, Avena said.

Companies reduced common sweeteners like refined beet sugar and high-fructose corn syrup but added alternatives, such as monk fruit and the sugar alcohol erythritol, which aren’t considered “added sugars” under FDA regulations.

“Now our foods are even more sweet than they were back in 2020,” Avena said.

Collin Popp, a dietitian and professor at NYU Langone Health, said the current FDA recommendation allows for some flexibility. People should get no more than 10% of their calories from added sugar, which amounts to about 50 grams per day if eating 2,000 calories, or a bit more than what’s in a typical can of soda.

But that might be too flexible, Popp said.

“I would actually like to see that be less than 5%, and closer to zero for some, if they have diabetes or prediabetes,” he said.

The key is to be mindful of what you’re eating, even if the product seems healthy or if the package is labeled organic, Popp said. Roasted nuts, plant-based milks and wasabi peas, for example, can include a surprising amount of added sugars. So can English muffins and Greek yogurt.

One Chobani black cherry yogurt, for example, has zero grams of fat but 9 grams of added sugar, or more than 2 teaspoons. Silk brand almond milk has 7 grams per cup.

Popp recommends taking control of how much sugar goes into your food. That could mean buying plain yogurt and adding honey or berries, or asking the barista if you can put your own oat milk into your coffee.

Although they lower the calorie content of foods, artificial sweeteners like stevia and sugar alcohols may not be better because they can encourage people to overeat, Avena said. She said research shows that sweet flavors are what activate the reward center of the brain, not the sugar itself.

That’s not to write off sugar alternatives, including allulose for people with Type 1 diabetes since it doesn’t affect blood sugar.

But for the general public, minimizing dependence on the overall sweetness of food is key to improving health, she said.

“Don’t let the food companies decide how much sugar you’re eating,” Avena said.

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Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and wellness. Find his work at www.albertstumm.com.

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday moved to limit the use of fluoride supplements used to strengthen children’s teeth, the latest action by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his deputies against a chemical that is a mainstay of dental care.

The FDA said that the products are no longer recommended for children younger than 3 and those who are older but don’t face serious risks of tooth decay. Previously, the products have been prescribed for children as young as six months.

The action stopped short of FDA statements in May suggesting regulators would seek the removal of the products from the market. Instead, the agency sent letters to four companies warning them not to market their products outside the new limits.

Fluoride tablets and lozenges are sometimes recommended for children and teens at increased risk of tooth decay or cavities because of low fluoride in their local drinking water. Companies also sell drops for babies.

The FDA released a new scientific analysis Friday, concluding that fluoride supplements have limited benefits for children’s teeth and may be linked to emerging safety concerns, including gut issues, weight gain and cognition.

“For the same reason fluoride may work to kill bacteria on teeth, it may also alter the gut microbiome, which may have broader health implications,” the agency said in a statement.

The agency also sent a form letter to dentists and other health providers warning about the risks of the products.

Those claims have been disputed by the American Dental Association, which has said there are no significant health problems associated with fluoride when used at the levels prescribed by dentists. The supplements can cause spotting or discoloration of teeth due to the extra fluoride, a downside the FDA also noted.

Dentists have warned that restricting fluoride supplements may result in more cavities and dental problems in rural communities, which are less likely to have fluoridated water. Kennedy is also seeking to end the practice of adding fluoride to drinking water throughout the U.S.

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1962, the agency set guidelines for how much should be added to water.

Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has called fluoride a “dangerous neurotoxin” tied to a range of health dangers.

The FDA regulates most dental products, including fluoride-containing toothpastes, supplements, mouthwashes and rinses. The agency’s actions don’t affect toothpastes, mouthwash or fluoride treatments used by adults or those offered in dentists’ offices.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

VALHALLA, New York — Pepsi has a new challenge: keeping products like Gatorade and Cheetos vivid and colorful without the artificial dyes that U.S. consumers are increasingly rejecting.

PepsiCo, which also makes Doritos, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Funyuns and Mountain Dew, announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to using natural colors in its foods and beverages. Around 40% of its U.S. products now contain synthetic dyes, according to the company.

But just as it took decades for artificial colors to seep into PepsiCo’s products, removing them is likely to be a multi-year process. The company said it’s still finding new ingredients, testing consumers’ responses and waiting for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve natural alternatives. PepsiCo hasn’t committed to meeting the Trump administration’s goal of phasing out petroleum-based synthetic dyes by the end of 2026.

“We’re not going to launch a product that the consumer’s not going to enjoy,” said Chris Coleman, PepsiCo’s senior director for food research and development in North America. “We need to make sure the product is right.”

Coleman said it can take two or three years to shift a product from an artificial color to a natural one. PepsiCo has to identify a natural ingredient that will have a stable shelf life and not change a product’s flavor. Then it must ensure the availability of a safe and adequate supply. The company tests prototypes with trained experts and panels of consumers, then makes sure the new formula won’t snag its manufacturing process. It also has to design new packaging.

Tostitos and Lay’s will be the first PepsiCo brands to make the shift, with naturally dyed tortilla and potato chips expected on store shelves later this year and naturally dyed dips due to be on sale early next year. Most of the chips, dips and salsas in the two lines already are naturally colored, but there were some exceptions.

The reddish-brown tint of Tostitos Salsa Verde, for example, came from four synthetic colors: Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40 and Blue 1. Coleman said the company is switching to carob powder, which gives the chips a similar color, but needed to tweak the recipe to ensure the addition of the cocoa alternative wouldn’t affect the taste.

In its Frito-Lay food labs and test kitchens in Plano, Texas, PepsiCo is experimenting with ingredients like paprika and turmeric to mimic the bright reds and oranges in products like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Coleman said.

The company is looking at purple sweet potatoes and various types of carrots to color drinks like Mountain Dew and Cherry 7Up, according to Damien Browne, the vice president of research and development for PepsiCo’s beverage division based in Valhalla, New York.

Getting the hue right is critical, since many consumers know products like Gatorade by their color and not necessarily their name, Browne said.

“We eat with our eyes,” he said. “If you look at a plate of food, it’s generally the different kinds of colors that will tell you what you would like or not.”

When the Pepsi-Cola Company was founded in 1902, the absence of artificial dyes was a point of pride. The company marketed Pepsi as “The Original Pure Food Drink” to differentiate the cola from rivals that used lead, arsenic and other toxins as food colorants before the U.S. banned them in 1906.

But synthetic dyes eventually won over food companies. They were vibrant, consistent and cheaper than natural colors. They are also rigorously tested by the FDA.

Still, PepsiCo said it started seeing a small segment of shoppers asking for products without artificial colors or flavors more than two decades ago. In 2002, it launched its Simply line of chips, which offer natural versions of products like Doritos. A dye-free organic Gatorade came out in 2016.

“We’re looking for those little signals that will become humongous in the future,” Amanda Grzeda, PepsiCo’s senior director of global sensory and consumer experience, said of the company’s close attention to consumer preferences.

Grzeda said the whisper PepsiCo detected in the early 2000s has become a roar, fueled by social media and growing consumer interest in ingredients. More than half of the consumers PepsiCo spoke to for a recent internal study said they were trying to reduce their consumption of artificial dyes, Grzeda said.

Some states, including West Virginia and Arizona, have banned artificial dyes in school lunches. But Browne said he thinks consumers are driving the push to overhaul processed foods.

“Consumers are definitely leading, and I think what we need to do is have the regulators catching up, allowing us to approve new natural ingredients to be able to meet their demand,” he said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said it’s expediting approval of natural additives after calling on companies to halt their use of synthetic dyes. In May, the FDA approved three new natural color additives, including a blue color derived from algae. In July, the agency approved gardenia blue, which is derived from a flowering evergreen.

The FDA banned one petroleum-based dye, Red 3, in January because it was shown to cause cancer in lab rats. And in September, the agency proposed a ban on Orange B, a synthetic color that hasn’t been used in decades.

Six synthetic dyes remain FDA-approved and widely used, despite mixed studies that show they may cause neurobehavioral problems in some children. Red 40, for example, is used in 25,965 food and beverage items on U.S. store shelves, according to the market research firm NIQ.

But even if decades of research has shown that synthetic colors are safe, PepsiCo has to weigh public perceptions, Grzeda said.

“We could just blindly follow the science, but it probably would put us at odds with what our consumers believe and perceive in the world,” she said.

PepsiCo also has to balance the needs of consumers who don’t want their favorite snacks and drinks to change or get more expensive because of the costs of natural dyes. NIQ data shows that unit sales of products advertised as free of artificial colors fell sharply in 2023 as prices rose.

Susan Mazur-Stommen, a small business owner in Hinton, West Virginia, picked up some Simply brand Cheetos Puffs recently at a convenience store because they were the only variety available. She found the texture to be much different from regular Cheetos Puffs, she said, and their pallid color made them less appetizing.

Mazur-Stommen said she agrees with the move away from petroleum-based dyes, but it’s not a critical issue for her.

“What I am looking for is the original formulation,” she said.

Ultimately, PepsiCo does not want customers to have to choose between natural colors and familiar flavors and textures, Grzeda said.

“That’s where it requires the deep science and ingredients and magic,” she said.

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Durbin reported from Detroit.

Democratic lawmakers are questioning whether a Boar’s Head deli meat plant at the center of last year’s deadly listeria outbreak will be fit to reopen.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut, sent a letter Monday asking company officials to appear before the Congressional Food Safety Caucus to discuss “a repeated pattern of food safety negligence that jeopardized Americans’ public health.”

The letter, signed by nine other Democrats, cited Associated Press reporting that described sanitation problems in recent months at Boar’s Head plants in three states. It requests a response by Sept. 26.

Boar’s Head officials have said they planned to reopen their plant in Jarratt, Virginia, in the coming months. The plant was shuttered after listeria-tainted liverwurst killed 10 people, sickened dozens and forced a recall of more than 7 million pounds of deli products. Federal officials said systemic problems at the plant caused the outbreak.

Officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department lifted the plant’s suspension in July and said that federal inspectors would assume direct oversight of operations.

Documents obtained by the AP showed problems at plants in Arkansas, Indiana and a different site in Virginia. Inspectors found instances of meat and fat residue left on equipment and walls, drains blocked with meat products, beaded condensation on ceilings and floors, overflowing trash cans and staff who failed to follow required hygiene practices.

“It is appalling that Boar’s Head is encountering similar issues at other facilities of theirs,” the letter said. “This information leaves us less than confident that the facility in Jarratt, Virginia, is prepared to reopen safely.”

Boar’s Head officials said they were reviewing the letter.

“In our more than 120-year history, what happened at our Jarratt facility was the first time that such an event occurred,” the company said in a statement. “We moved quickly, aggressively and decisively in close collaboration with regulators and leading food safety experts to identify the root cause of the problem and implement enhancements to our food manufacturing nationwide to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

Boar’s Head officials have declined to comment on the problems identified in the recent inspection reports obtained by the AP. They said that the company has boosted food safety practices in Jarratt and other sites aimed at reducing or eliminating listeria in finished products.

Once it reopens, the Jarratt plant will face at least 90 days of heightened monitoring and inspections by federal Food Safety and Inspection Service officials. Previously, inspections were conducted by state officials who operated on behalf of the agency.

The change aims to “ensure the establishment consistently and effectively implements its corrected food safety plans,” USDA officials said in a statement. It calls for stricter enforcement if lapses occur.

In the years before the outbreak, state inspectors documented numerous problems at the plant, including mold, insects, liquid dripping from ceilings and meat and fat residue on walls, floors and equipment, records showed. They were operating under a cooperative agreement that allows state inspectors to conduct federal inspections.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a bill Sunday to ban all THC consumables, allowing the booming market flush with THC-infused vapes, gummies and other products to continue to be sold across the state.

Abbott, a Republican, waited until the final moment to veto the bill in what would have been one of the most restrictive THC bans in the country and a significant blow to the state’s billion-dollar industry.

The law would have made it a misdemeanor to own, manufacture or sell consumable THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, products and was the latest push by states to regulate THC after a 2018 federal law allowed states to regulate hemp, a similar plant to marijuana that can be synthetically processed to produce THC, the compound giving marijuana its psychoactive properties.

Loopholes in existing law have allowed many THC-infused goods to enter the market across the country, including states with strict marijuana laws.

Texas has some of the strictest marijuana laws in the country, prohibiting all recreational use and providing a limited medical marijuana program. The consumables market has allowed residents to legally access goods giving a similar high to marijuana.

Republican lawmakers have criticized the products as dangerous due to a lack of federal oversight in how the goods are manufactured. Texas’ ban is one of the more far-reaching among states that have taken similar steps. Several states, including California, have imposed age limits and restrictions on the potency of THC products.

Critics of the Texas bill say it allows people who cannot access marijuana through the state’s medical marijuana program to acquire goods that can provide a similar relief. Many retailers across the state also pointed to the thousands of jobs and millions in revenue the industry brings each year.

Last year, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would have put age restrictions on THC consumables, claiming it would hurt small businesses.

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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.