a few days ago, i just found out that 1 teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4.2 grams. christine and i have always told people, avoid sugar ESPECIALLY if you have a case of candida you are trying to eradicate from your guts. but exactly how much sugar was too much? it was hard to tell. but when i found out that 1 teaspoon of sugar = 4.2 grams, it helped me A LOT to visualize how much sugar is in the foods i come across when i look at the nutritional labels. as you should already know, keeping the body's inflammation levels down is a vital component to purging the acne from the skin with minimal inflamed acne - who wants to walk around with red, swollen, painful zitty zits? - as well as keeping the body's internal systems functioning at optimal levels. inflammation has been linked to many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome among others, INCLUDING acne!

to put things into perspective:

one 12-ounce can of coca-cola classic has 39 grams of sugar = 9.29 teaspoons of sugar. one 20-ounce bottle of vitamin water has 32 grams of sugar = 7.62 teaspoons of sugar. VS one perrier lemon/citron flavored carbonated water has 0 grams of sugar. one packet of quaker oats apple & cinnamon instant oatmeal has 22 grams of sugar = 5.24 teaspoons. the cinnamon & sugar flavored instant oatmeal has 32 grams of sugar = 7.62 teaspoons. VS a 1/4 cup (uncooked) serving of mccann's steel cut oatmeal has less than 1 gram of sugar. (you can add your own sweetener - hopefully not 7+ teaspoons!) 1 tablespoon of wholesome sweeteners brand organic blue agave has 16 grams of sugar = 3.81 teaspoons of sugar. (HUGE surprise to me! we will be changing the 'guide to clear skin' to recommend stevia instead of agave!) VS most single serving packets of stevia (a naturally sweet herb) have 0-1 grams of sugar content. one trader joe's organic navel orange has 13 grams of sugar = 3.1 teaspoons VS 1 cup of raw raspberries contains 5 grams of sugar = 1.19 teaspoons of sugar. be mindful of what you are putting in your body - READ THOSE LABELS! * sugar contents were found with the help of webmd.com and myfitnesspal.com