How Much Sugar Is Too Much Sugar?

Most of us eat some sugar, but how much can we take a day without it becoming a problem?

According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010-2015, the average American has 270 calories from sugar a day, which is about 17 teaspoons of sugar. I suspect that the average for 2020/2021 is even higher. The guidelines recommend that no more than 10% of our diet should be from added sugar. If you do the math, you can see that 270 calories is more than 10% for most people. If you took in 2000 calories a day, than your daily intake should be no more than 200 calories.

But these guidelines might be too generous. According to a 2015 WHO recommendation, only 5% of our daily caloric intake should come from sugar. If you ate 2000 calories a day, this would then amount to 100 calories from sugar, which is 6 tsp.

White sugar has virtually no nutrients, but lots of calories. So with our limited amount of calories to ‘spend’ each day, we want to invest wisely and use most of our calories for nutrient-dense foods. Remember, if you take in 2000 calories in a day, then you want to limit your sugar intake to 50-100 calories (depending of which of the above guidelines you are following). Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010-2015 gives the following calorie count for some products with added sugars…

6 oz. of flavored yogurt has 72 calories of added sugars

1.6 oz. chocolate bar has 74 calories of added sugars

a 12 oz. can of soda has 126 calories of added sugars

a piece of chocolate cake has 196 calories of added sugars

To stay within the guidelines for the above, you could:

Keep the yogurt or chocolate bar, but add no additional sugars for the rest of the day

Eat half the amount of yogurt or chocolate bar, and have room for a little more added sugar

Have only half the can of soda or 1/3 piece of the cake and have no more added sugar for the rest of the day

Have water instead of soda, or a piece of fresh fruit instead of the cake, and have room for something else with less sugar

Try a day or more with no added sugar and study how you feel.

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