This is the new Nutrition Facts label format that the FDA released to the public on May 20. You won’t see the new Nutrition Facts labels on products until July 2018 but you can start appreciating the positive step the FDA is taking. Looking at the new label format, it may not seem like much of a change; the most obvious difference is the larger font size telling us how many calories we are about to consume. But there is one difference that should make an even bigger impact on which foods we choose to eat – if we know what to look for.

Under the “Total Carbohydrates” heading will be “Added Sugars” listed in grams and Percent Daily Value. The FDA is including “Added Sugars” as its own category due to the large push from organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization to inform Americans about the amounts of added sugar in their diet.

Recent scientific research has shown that too much sugar in the diet is most likely the leading cause of diabetes and heart disease – not fat. And scary enough, sugar is being added in plenty to American food ever since the 1950’s when the food processing industry took off. Over the last half century, the amount of added sugar people consume has risen to an average of 19 teaspoons a day. This is concerning considering the fact that all the medical associations listed above agree that we should only be consuming six-nine teaspoons a day.

Added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars such as those found in fruits, are dangerous to a healthy lifestyle. Sugar is made of two components – glucose and fructose. Glucose is the super important molecule you always hear about in life science classes that is metabolized and used to power our cells. Fructose, on the other hand, is not talked about as much because it is not easily metabolized by our body. Sugars are processed in the liver and when a high amount of added sugar is consumed (like when you drink a soda), the liver is unable to process the amount of excess fructose you have supplied. Instead, the fructose is turned into fat which can stay in the liver and lead to fatty liver disease. Long story short, added sugars are overloading our metabolism and wearing down our body’s systems causing the metabolic and cardiac diseases we see in a growing number of Americans.

All this new research is quite alarming given that most Americans (especially college students) rely on processed foods such as microwave dinners and granola bars to survive. If you, like myself, are an average consumer of processed goods, you probably don’t view yourself as an at-risk sugar consumer. But that’s why added sugars are so dangerous. Processed foods you wouldn’t consider to be sugary can contain copious amounts of added sugar. The food industry has been using added sugars to enhance flavors and make up for the natural fats they removed from products when the world decided fat was the villain.

As consumers, we should be able to consciously choose when we want to indulge in sugar. Without knowledge of just how much added sugars are in our packaged foods, we have been unable to control our sugar intake decisions. With the new label format, no matter which name is used for sugar on the ingredient list, we will be aware of the amount.

For more about the research and policy struggles against the food industry, watch the documentary "Sugar Coated," available on Netflix.