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No, No, This Is Why You're Fat

By John Capone

| Tuesday, May 12, 2009 | Updated 9:53 AM EDT

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courtesy Sugar Stacks

Supersize me!

A website called Sugar Stacks is doing you a favor, America. Go take a look. The site helpfully shows, visually, how much sugar is in things that you eat every day. It's one thing to know that a 12 oz McFlurry contains 73 g of sugar and 550 calories; it's another thing entirely to see the McFlurry cup alongside the stack of nearly 19 cubes of sugar that are inside the tasty shake.

Consider it a helpful aide in distinguishing what's essentially sugar-laden junk (pretty much most things that come in a wrapper or package) and what's not (pretty much fruit). In using simple cubes of white sugar to visualize content, the site does not differentiate between types of sugar -- you could be talking sucrose, fructose and corn syrup, or honey and cane sugar -- but it is a start. Though some folks have gotten pretty feisty about this lack of differentiation.

Of course, if you have ADD from all the sugar you consume every day and can't seem to concentrate on more that 140 characters at once, you can follow Sugar Stack on Twitter: answer questions about what you'd like to see stacked next ("a complete Starbucks menu or mixed drinks") and get constant reminders of why you're fat to boot.