Americans have a sweet tooth, and the obesity and diabetes rates to prove it. The best way to help people eat less sugar is to let them know how much of it is in their foods. Yet a sensible plan to inform consumers about the amount of sugar added to packaged products is under fire from the food industry and politicians. The Food and Drug Administration should stand strong and stick with the plan when it issues its final rules later this year.

The FDA has proposed requiring a new line in the nutrition label for “added sugars” – just below the line for total sugar. The label may also specify how much of the recommended daily allowance of added sugars the product contains.

Added sugar deserves a line of its own because it’s empty calories. Many nutritious products contain natural sugars: A cup of cherries or grapes can have more than 15 grams, and a cup of 1 percent milk has 13 grams. Yet this sugar comes along with essential nutrients; that glass of milk contains 16 percent of the protein a healthy adult needs each day, and 30 percent of the calcium.

In contrast, refined cane sugar, corn syrup and the like that are added to foods and drinks during processing (also called “free sugars”) offer no additional nutrients. Americans now get about 13 percent of their daily calories from them, largely through soda and other beverages, breakfast cereals and frozen desserts.

The new line for added sugars is part of the FDA’s general shakeup of the nutrition label to reflect the research that’s been done since the early 1990s, when labels were first required. The agency has other changes in mind, too, including listing potassium, vitamin D and other vital nutrients that Americans eat too little of. In a society that spends more than $300 billion a year on medical costs and reduced productivity from diabetes alone, these are worthwhile requirements. Americans can more easily eat better if they know what’s in their food.

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