How much sugar is in orange juice? Here’s what to know.

The Food and Drug Administration last week proposed a tweak to reduce the amount of sugar required in pasteurized orange juice.

But the news from the Trump administration isn’t a proposal to lower the amount of sugar in the American diet; it’s intended to help Florida’s citrus industry because the sugar content of Florida oranges has been steadily dropping due to a bacterial disease afflicting the crop.

Although orange juice contains naturally occurring sugar, registered dietitians are generally more concerned about added sugar.

“Orange juice is not the problem,” said Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian with Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition. “It’s the sugar that’s added to every single thing we eat.”

Orange juice “can absolutely be part of a healthy diet,” said Vandana Sheth, a registered dietitian based in Torrance, California. “For those who want to enjoy it every day, the key is portion size. Try to stick to 4 to 6 ounces.”

Zumpano advises her patients to only drink one or two glasses of juice a day — not eight. Better yet, swap a glass of juice for the whole fruit. Because an orange comes with fiber, and digesting the fruit is a slower way to absorb the natural sugars.

Even if it’s a natural source of sugar, the sugar in orange juice will enter the bloodstream faster than an orange, Zumpano said.

“Think about how many oranges you have to squeeze to get into that glass,” she said. “Well, that is the amount of sugar you’re consuming.”

Pair a glass of 100% orange juice with protein or fiber if you want to slow down how quickly you absorb the sugar, Sheth said.

So, how much sugar is in a glass of orange juice anyway? The Washington Post reviewed the total sugar on nutrition labels of several top grocery brands.

Florida’s Natural Orange Juice has 24 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass. The company did not respond to questions regarding the FDA’s proposal.

Minute Maid Original Orange Juice also has 24 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass. The brand is owned by Coca-Cola, and the company did not respond to questions.

Pulp-free orange juice from Simply Orange has 23 grams of total sugar in an 8-ounce glass.

The brand’s Simply Light contains half as much sugar — 11 grams — per glass. The ingredients for Simply Light orange juice include filtered water, orange juice, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and the sugar alternative stevia.

Simply Orange is also owned by Coca-Cola, and the company did not respond to a request for comment.

Tropicana’s Original Orange Juice with no pulp has 22 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass.

Meanwhile, Tropicana Light Orange Juice with no pulp contains 10 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass. The ingredients for Tropicana Light include filtered water, orange juice, orange juice concentrate, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and stevia extract. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Uncle Matt’s Organic Orange Juice — sold at Whole Foods and other stores — has 22 grams of sugar in an 8-ounce glass. Susan McLean, a co-founder of Uncle Matt’s Organic, said their orange juice contains no added sugar, sweeteners, preservatives or any other flavors.

“The naturally occurring sugar content comes directly from the fruit itself, and our brix (natural sweetness) is consistently above 11.8, which is well above the minimum threshold,” she said in an email.

Across the different brands of orange juice, the amount of sugar is “about the same” because they’re all 100% juice, Zumpano said.

“There’s no trick or trade to reading the label for something that has one ingredient,” she said.

Shannon Shepp, the executive director of Florida’s Department of Citrus, a state agency that markets and regulates the state’s citrus industry, said the industry’s petition to the FDA “wasn’t in response to consumer concerns” regarding sugar. It’s because Florida is recovering from “an awful citrus-based disease.”

The FDA’s proposal would reduce the minimum brix — a measurement of the sugar content in the juice — from 10.5 to 10. But, “the consumer is not going to have a noticeable taste difference,” Shepp said.

• Rachel Roubein contributed to this report.