How Much Added Sugar Is Too Much?

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends keeping free sugars under 10% of your daily energy, and suggests that under 5% would bring further benefits. For someone eating 2,000 kcal a day, 10% is 50 g of sugar (about 12 teaspoons) and 5% is 25 g. The American Heart Association (AHA) sets similar limits on added sugars: about 25 g a day for women and 36 g for men.

This article is general information, not medical advice.

Added, Free, and Total Sugars

• Total sugars include everything: the sugars naturally in milk and whole fruit as well as those added.
• Added sugars are sugars and syrups added during processing or preparation, such as table sugar, honey added to a recipe, or corn syrup in a soft drink.
• Free sugars, the WHO’s term, are added sugars plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, and fruit juices.

The limits apply to added or free sugars, not to the sugar in whole fruit, vegetables, and milk. So a high total sugars figure from fruit and yogurt isn’t the same as one from soft drinks.

The Recommendations

• WHO (2015). Its guideline on sugars intake strongly recommends reducing free sugars to less than 10% of total energy, and conditionally recommends going below 5%. The evidence linked free sugars to weight gain and to tooth decay; the 5% suggestion rests on lower-quality evidence about tooth decay.
• AHA (2009). Johnson and colleagues’ scientific statement recommends no more than 100 kcal a day of added sugars for most women (about 25 g, or 6 teaspoons) and 150 kcal for most men (about 36 g, or 9 teaspoons).

Where It Comes From

Common sources include sweetened drinks, sweets and desserts, sweetened cereals and yogurts, and sauces. A single can of a regular soft drink can hold as much as the AHA’s daily limit, so labels are worth reading.

Following It in Kaizora

Dietary Added Sugars and Dietary Total Sugars are separate metrics, from the foods you log on Food Log or Cronometer’s import. There’s no Dietary Reference Intake for added sugars, so no default reference range; add your own, such as a habit of “at most 25 g of added sugars a day”, or in the unit you think in. Break a day’s sugars down by food to find the main sources. See Habits.

The Short Version

• The WHO says free sugars should be under 10% of energy, ideally under 5%.
• The AHA says at most about 25 g of added sugars a day for women and 36 g for men.
• The limits don’t apply to sugars in whole fruit, vegetables, and milk.

Sources

• World Health Organization, Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children (2015).
• Johnson RK et al., “Dietary sugars intake and cardiovascular health: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association,” Circulation 120, no. 11 (2009): 1011–1020. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.192627