Dietary guidelines: Watch how much sugar you eat

The latest U.S. dietary guidelines released on Thursday shift the attention from cholesterol to sugar intake.

Updated every five years by administrators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, the guidelines no longer place a limit to the amount of cholesterol people should consume. Instead, they suggest limiting sugar to 10 percent of the daily caloric intake; that’s about 50 grams of sugar for a 2,000 calorie diet, or about 12 teaspoons a day.

Dianne Koehler, a nutritionist who teaches at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, warns people about the most deceiving foods -- such as yogurt -- which can contain the same amount of sugar as a candy bar.

However, she also recommends using the guidelines as nothing more than just that -- a guideline.

"I always caution people to not look at it as a so [sic] restrictive that you can’t feel like you have total control of your food choices,” she said.

For the complete list of guidelines, click here.