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Sunday, February 9, 2025

How A lot Sugar Can I Have In a Day?


The grocery retailer aisles are lined with merchandise that comprise added sugars. Typically, sugars are present in apparent locations, like cookies and ice cream. Nevertheless, sugars are additionally hidden in pasta sauce and salad dressing. Over 65 % of meals within the common grocery retailer comprise added sugars.

Consuming sugar carefully is okay as a part of a balanced eating regimen, and it’s good to have some candy treats sometimes as a result of they style good. Sadly, many Individuals get an excessive amount of added sugar, which is linked to an elevated threat of growing coronary heart illness, sort 2 diabetes, and a few sorts of most cancers.

So, how a lot sugar is an inexpensive quantity to devour each day? And does it matter if the sugars come from sweet, soda, or recent fruit? Let’s discover out.

Forms of Sugars

Listed below are a couple of necessary phrases to learn about sugars:

Pure sugars

These sugars happen naturally in meals and are usually not added within the manufacturing course of. Examples of pure sugars embody sugars present in fruit, candy greens, and milk, similar to lactose and fructose. These meals are a part of a well-balanced eating regimen, despite the fact that they comprise some pure sugars.

Added Sugars or Free Sugars

In the US, “added sugars” describes any sweetener added to meals or drinks throughout manufacturing. The listing of added sugars contains:

  • White sugars: together with granulated and icing sugars
  • Brown sugars: together with turbinado, darkish brown, and lightweight brown sugars
  • Honey
  • Syrups: together with maple, agave, corn, and excessive fructose corn syrup
  • Fruit juice or fruit juice concentrates

The World Well being Group (WHO) makes use of the time period “free sugars” to explain these sugars. “Free sugars” means the identical because the US time period “added sugars.” Within the article, the phrases “added sugars” and “free sugars” are used interchangeably and imply the identical factor.

Complete Sugars

Complete sugars characterize the overall of all the sugars listed above. Including up pure and added sugars provides you with the worth for whole sugars.

Vitamin Information labels listing whole sugars and added sugars. The distinction between these numbers is pure sugars. For instance, chocolate milk incorporates pure lactose sugar and added sugar. The Vitamin Information label could say:

  • 23 g whole sugars
  • Together with 11 grams of added sugar

Which means the distinction is pure sugars: 23 – 11 = 12. So, 12 grams are pure lactose sugars.

How A lot Sugar Can I Have Per Day?

Based on the American Coronary heart Affiliation (AHA), Individuals get about 17 teaspoons of added sugars each day. That is an excessive amount of sugar, says the AHA, who suggest that:

  • Males devour not more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams or 150 energy) of added sugar per day.
  • Girls devour not more than six teaspoons (25 grams or 100 energy) per day.

The WHO and Dietary Pointers for Individuals (DGA) present extra leeway. The WHO and the DGA suggest decreasing the consumption of added or free sugars to lower than 10 % of whole calorie consumption. In a 2000-calorie eating regimen, that might be not more than 12 teaspoons (48 grams or 200 energy) per day.

Whether or not you cap your sugar consumption at six, 9, or 12 teaspoons each day, it is nonetheless higher than the present nationwide common of 17 teaspoons. In case your added sugar consumption is at the moment excessive, any discount is helpful.

Pure vs. Added Sugars: Steerage

Sugar pointers suggest limiting added or free sugars however not proscribing pure sugars. Why is that?

Pure sugars are present in greens, fruit, and milk. These are nourishing meals that kind the constructing blocks of a nutritious eating regimen. They comprise useful vitamins that the physique wants. The optimistic vitamins – similar to nutritional vitamins, minerals, and fiber, outweigh the sugar.

Greens and fruits comprise fiber, which helps make us really feel full and glad. Whereas it’s simple to over-consume added sugar in sweet or soda, fruit is extra filling. Which means we often eat fruit in smaller quantities than once we drink soda or juice and get much less sugar from it.

The pure sugar in milk is lactose. It has a low glycemic index (GI) of 46, which implies it digests slowly and doesn’t spike blood sugar ranges. For comparability, white sugar has a medium GI of 60, and glucose syrup has a excessive GI of 100. These refined sugars are extra problematic for blood sugar spikes.

You may eat fruit and greens or drink milk each day as a part of a wholesome, balanced eating regimen. The pure sugars in these meals are usually not a part of the AHA, WHO, or DGA limits on added sugars.

Which Meals Comprise Sugar? And How A lot?

Many meals comprise pure or added sugars or each. Right here is the pure sugar content material of some widespread meals:

Pure Sugars
 Meals Quantity  Pure sugars
Apple 1 medium   20 g
Banana 1 medium   20 g
Blueberries 1 cup 15 g
Peach 1 medium 13 g
Beets 1 cup 13 g
Watermelon 1 cup  12 g 
Milk 2% 1 cup  12 g  
Cantaloupe 1 cup  12 g 
Strawberries 1 cup  8 g 
Raspberries 1 cup  6 g 
Carrot 1 medium  3 g 
This chart reveals the pure sugar content material in choose fruits, greens and milk.

Added Sugars

Many packaged meals and drinks comprise added sugars, which might be listed by many alternative names, together with:

  • Sugar
  • Brown sugar
  • Invert sugar
  • Sucrose
  • Glucose
  • Excessive fructose corn syrup
  • Honey
  • Agave
  • Coconut sap syrup
  • Evaporated cane juice
  • Fruit juice focus

Meals and drinks with probably the most sugar embody sweet, soda, and baked items. Right here is the added sugar content material of some widespread meals:

Added Sugars
Meals Quantity Added sugars 
Cola 16.9 oz. 56 g 
Apple juice 16.9 oz  53 g  
Pound cake 1 slice (115 g) 38 g
Licorice 1 bag (60 g)  35 g
Gummy sweet 1 bag (60 g) 35 g
Sweet bar 1 bar (48 g)  24 g 
Donut 75 g  20 g
Sugary cereal 30 g  11 g  
Cookies 2 cookies (30 g)  10 g 
Granola bar 1 bar (24 g) 7 g
Candy salad dressing 2 tbsp 6 g
Pasta sauce 1/2 cup 6 g
Ketchup 1 tbsp  4 g 
This chart reveals the added sugar content material in choose meals

The best way to Scale back Your Sugar Consumption

In case your sugar consumption exceeds 12 teaspoons per day, take into account reducing again. Listed below are some issues you are able to do:

  • Select water as an alternative of soda, candy tea, or juice. Taste your water with recent fruit, a squeeze of citrus, mint leaves, or a cinnamon stick.
  • As an alternative of candy dessert after each meal, swap out baked items like cookies and cake for fruit extra usually.
  • Reduce slowly. Strive including 1 / 4 or half the sugar to recipes.
  • Plan nutrient-dense snacks forward of time so you’re much less seemingly to decide on sweet.
  • Preserve cut-up fruit in containers for straightforward snacking.
  • Eat extra complete meals, similar to greens, fruits, and nuts, fairly than ultra-processed meals like sweet and baked items.
  • Learn Vitamin Information labels and have a look at sugar content material for added sugars. And know this calculation: 1 tsp sugar = 4 grams. So if the Vitamin Information says the sweet bar has 24 g of sugar, know that 24 g divided by 4 grams = 6 teaspoons of sugar per sweet bar.
Verywell Match makes use of solely high-quality sources, together with peer-reviewed research, to assist the details inside our articles. Learn our editorial course of to study extra about how we fact-check and preserve our content material correct, dependable, and reliable.
Cara Rosenbloom, RD

By Cara Rosenbloom, RD

Cara makes use of evidence-based analysis to share vitamin details, dispel myths, and aid you really feel empowered to make nourishing selections for physique and soul.

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