Shazam999: Ah good ol' NYT, twisting words to... well, sell their POS newspaper.

Yes, what they said is true. However, it's not the entire truth. The tomatoes themselves have sugar in them. A half cup of just regular crushed tomatoes has around 6 grams of naturally occurring sugars. So we can say that Prego adds 4 grams of sugar in a half cup, which is 4/5 of a teaspoon. Not that much really.

And typically, sugar is added to homemade sauces to balance out the acidity. Of course if you do it at home you can control the amount. But really if you go to your favourite artisan Italian restaurant I'll bet you dollars to donuts they're loading up on the sugar too. And really the sauce isn't even the problem - it's the pasta portion, which is usually 4-5 servings.

I can tell you exactly where the whole myth of sugar in pasta sauce came from: Old Betty Crocker cookbooks, known for covering up every other flavor with butter, sugar & salt. It spread from there. It's a myth because it does absolutely nothing to balance acidity, it just covers it up, whereas a little carrot or tiny sprinkle of baking soda will completely neutralize it without any added flavor, and all pasta-making companies know this. Sugar-laden pasta sauces will still irritate sensitive stomachs.