Mayo Clinic Health Manager

Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.

Get Started

Free

E-Newsletter

Subscribe to receive the latest updates on health topics. About our newsletters

  • Housecall
  • Alzheimer's caregiving
  • Living with cancer

Added sugar: Don't get sabotaged by sweeteners

Do you know how much sugar is in your diet? See why added sugar is a concern and how you can cut back.

By Mayo Clinic staff

If you're like many people, you may be eating and drinking more sugar than ever because it's added to so many foods and beverages. But this added sugar may be one of the factors in the rise in obesity and other health problems.

Does that mean you can or should avoid all sugar? Not necessarily. Sugar occurs naturally in some healthy foods. But other foods and beverages, especially sweetened soft drinks, may be high in added sugar — and low in nutritional value. Added sugar does little more than add extra calories to your diet and set the stage for potential health problems.

Learn more about added sugar, including the types of added sugar, where it's most commonly found and how you can cut back on added sugar in your diet. When you know more about added sugar, you can be a savvy consumer — and maybe a healthier one, too.

Why added sugar is in so many foods

All sugar, whether natural or processed, is a type of simple carbohydrate that your body uses for energy. Sugar occurs naturally in some unprocessed foods that are staples of a healthy diet — fruits, vegetables, milk and some grains. Various forms of processed sugars and syrups also are added to foods and beverages, especially nondiet soft drinks — these are known as added sugar.

While added sugar has no nutritional value, it serves many functions in food manufacturing. Added sugar:

  • Boosts flavor
  • Gives baked goods texture and color
  • Helps preserve foods such as jams and jellies
  • Fuels fermentation, which produces alcohol and enables bread to rise
  • Serves as a bulking agent in baked goods and ice cream
  • Balances the acidity of foods containing vinegar and tomatoes

In some cases, adding a small amount of sugar may be helpful. For instance, adding a small amount of sugar to healthy breakfast cereals and reduced-fat milk products can make these healthy options more appealing to children who might otherwise avoid them.

Why added sugar can be a problem

Added sugar probably isn't harmful in small amounts. But there's no health advantage to consuming any amount of added sugar. And too much added sugar, and in some cases naturally occurring sugar, can lead to such health problems as:

  • Tooth decay. All forms of sugar promote tooth decay by allowing bacteria to grow. The more often and longer you snack on foods and beverages with either natural sugar or added sugar, the more likely you are to develop cavities, especially if you don't practice good oral hygiene.
  • Poor nutrition. If you fill up on foods laden with added sugar, you may skimp on nutritious foods, which means you could miss out on important nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Regular soda plays an especially big role. It's easy to fill up on sweetened soft drinks and skip low-fat milk and even water — giving you lots of extra sugar and calories and no nutritional value.
  • Weight gain. There's usually no single cause for being overweight or obese. But added sugar likely contributes to the problem. One reason is that added sugar helps makes food taste better, and that may encourage you to keep eating even when you don't need to or aren't actually hungry. Sugar is also very energy dense, which means a small amount of food or drink with added sugar has a large amount of calories.
  • Increased triglycerides. Some evidence suggests that eating an excessive amount of added sugar can increase triglyceride levels, boosting your risk of heart disease.

Recommendations for consuming added sugar

So how much added sugar should you eat? Unfortunately, it's not necessarily clear-cut. Health experts do agree that the calories you get from foods and drinks with added sugar are discretionary — you can have them, but it's not recommended. Discretionary calories are calories from sweets, fats and alcohol that should be included in your diet only if you have calories to spare after eating nutritious meals during the day, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean proteins.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which provides recommendations on good dietary habits to promote health and reduce the risk of diseases, doesn't spell out how much added sugar you should get. But the guidelines do suggest the number of discretionary calories you can have based on your situation, such as age and physical activity level. For example, if you should consume 2,000 calories a day for a healthy diet, 267 of those calories would be discretionary calories that you could "spend" on food or drinks that contain added sugar, solid fats and alcohol. The more you have of one, the less you can have of another. For instance, you could consume all of your discretionary calories either by eating one sugary snack or by having a couple of alcoholic drinks.

The American Heart Association (AHA), however, is so concerned about health problems related to the excess consumption of added sugar that in August 2009 it issued specific recommendations. These recommendations go beyond the guidance from the USDA. The AHA recommends that no more than half of your discretionary allowance of calories come from added sugar.

In general, the AHA says that most American women should consume no more than 100 calories a day from added sugar, and that most American men should consume no more than 150 calories a day from added sugar — and that even less is better. That's about 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 for men. Your age and activity level help determine the specific amount of added sugar suitable for you. To put things into perspective, one 12-ounce can of a sweetened soft drink contains 8 teaspoons of added sugar, or about 130 calories.

Most Americans get more than 22 teaspoons a day of added sugar — or 355 calories — far exceeding both USDA guidelines and American Heart Association recommendations.

Next page
(1 of 2)
References
  1. Whitney E, et al. Understanding Nutrition. 11th ed. Belmont Calif.: Thomson Higher Education; 2008.
  2. Encyclopedia of Foods: A Guide to Healthy Nutrition. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press; 2002.
  3. Duyff RL. American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons Inc; 2006.
  4. Johnson RK, et al. Dietary sugars intake and cardiovascular health: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2009;120:1011.
  5. Dietary guidelines for Americans, 2005. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.health.gov/DietaryGuidelines/dga2005/document/default.htm. Accessed Aug. 24, 2009.
  6. Hensrud DD (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Sept. 29, 2009.
  7. Zeratsky KA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Oct. 4, 2009.
  8. Nelson JK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Oct. 9, 2009.

MY00845

Oct. 30, 2009

© 1998-2009 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). All rights reserved. A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. "Mayo," "Mayo Clinic," "MayoClinic.com," "EmbodyHealth," "Reliable tools for healthier lives," "Enhance your life," and the triple-shield Mayo Clinic logo are trademarks of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.

Print Share Reprints

Text Size: smaller largerlarger