How Much Sugar Per Day is Too Much?
While sugar can be delicious and make life a little sweeter, it can also be dangerous to your health if you have too much of it. As with anything, an excess amount of sugar can lead to adverse health problems, but a little bit can be okay.
There's nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and then, but it's important to practice portion control.
So, what exactly is the limit on how many teaspoons of added sugar you should consume a day?
If you want to avoid raising your risk of suffering from 45 different health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, asthma, some cancers, depression, obesity and even death, then keep reading for the major in-depth review study in the United States and China.
Harmfully Linked
The review indicates that a high consumption of added sugar, especially those foods that contain fructose, is harmfully linked with large numbers of damaging health outcomes, says Dr. Liangren Liu, an associate professor at the West China Hospital at Sichuan University.
The most reliable evidence of the harmful links between high added sugar consumption and sweetened beverages are fat accumulation, obesity in children, coronary heart disease, and depression, Liu adds.
U.S. Foods Among the Highest
The United States ranks among those countries with the highest sugar intake per person in the world. On average, Americans consume the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day—three times the limit recommended in the study.
The research study therefore paints a highly damaging and worrying picture of the harm that excess sugar can have on our bodies.
Added sugar is that sugar which is not naturally present in whole foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and diary products, but is added to improve the texture, flavor, and taste of foods.
The main sources of added sugar in American diets are sugary desserts, beverages, sweet snacks, sugar-sweetened tea and coffee, and candy.
Sixty-one Names For Sugar
Another problem, Cadogan points out, is that at least 61 different names exist for sugar. If you look for words ending in “-ose”—such as dextrose—on an ingredient list you can safely assume it is an added sugar, she says.
Other names include: high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, fruit juice concentrate, sucrose, corn syrup, dextrin, malt syrup, and rice syrup.
Syrups and juices also are forms of sugary beverages, she adds.
How Much Sugar is Too Much?
It's suggested that six teaspoons, or 25 grams, is the maximum amount of sugar you should consumer per day.
Oh yes, and also limit your sugar-sweetened drinks to fewer than one serving a week if you want to avoid increasing your risk of contracting adverse health conditions.
How did the researchers come to their conclusion on six teaspoons of added sugar?
They conducted an umbrella study, which reviews all the information that is available on the topic under study.
They started from the widely-accepted premise that the intake of excessive sugar can be damaging to your health. The World Health Organization has suggested cutting down on your consumption of added sugar to less than 10% of your daily intake of energy.
How Do You Work it Out?
How, then, do you determine how much added sugar is equivalent to six teaspoons?
The problem is that most added sugars are hidden and sprinkled into all kinds of ultra-processed foods.
The first step should not be to cut back on all cookies, cakes and foods that clearly contain added sugar, suggests registered clinical dietitian Dr. Shyla Cadogan of Carroll Hospital in the Washington D.C.-Batimore area.
The key, she suggests, is to check for added sugar on food labels. The reason you should do this is that some foods that one would assume do not contain much sugar, such as bread and tomato sauce, contribute to your overall sugar consumption.