Here a bite of chocolate, there a sweet tea and later a pudding. We love sweets. But how much sugar a day is healthy?
Sugar is unhealthy. We all know that. Nevertheless, we find it very difficult to keep our hands off sweets.
The temptation is too great to bite and enjoy. Surely there's nothing wrong with a little bit, right?
But how much sugar a day is actually acceptable and when does it become really unhealthy?
Did you know that more than one in two soft drinks contains too much sugar?
Foodwatch has launched an investigation. More than 560 sodas, fruit juices, energy drinks, iced teas and other refreshers were put under the microscope.
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The results are shocking. Around 60 percent of beverages consist of more than 5 percent sugar.
In one third, even more than 8 percent sugar was detected.
At 250 milliliters, that's already 6.5 lumps of sugar cubes.
But how much sugar a day is actually still okay?
How much sugar a day is ok
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends consuming no more than six teaspoons of sugar per day. That's 25 grams. Or 8.3 grams of sugar cubes.
8 cubes? You'll never manage that, will you? Yes, unfortunately, it turns out very quickly.
80% of all prepackaged foods contain sugar. So you're unknowingly eating lots of it.
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With the soda from the study, you would have already covered the daily requirement with a few sips.
At most, you should consume 10 percent of your daily calories in the form of sugar. The less the better.
Have a look at the book "Sugar Free - The 40 Day Challenge" on. It has helped me get through my sugar-free period.
In reality, around 90 grams are eaten per day on average. That is almost 4x as much as recommended by the WHO.
By the way, the indication of sugar does not only refer to household sugar. But also to natural sources such as honey, fruit juices or syrup.
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So how much sugar a day is ok? The less the better. Because the less sweets you eat, the lower your risk of developing diabetes, obesity or tooth decay.
Do we need sugar at all?
Yes and no. The human body needs sugar to survive. And it does so in the form of glucose.
But not all sugar is the same. You can find natural forms in fruits and vegetables. Or in foods like rice and potatoes, whose carbohydrates are converted into sugar during digestion.
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The situation is different for added sugar. Here, it's mainly household sugar. It is found in soft drinks, ready-to-serve pizza, baked goods, fruit juices, sauces - in fact, in 80% of all processed foods you can buy in the supermarket.
Our body needs natural sugar from rice, potatoes and whole grain products in order to function. It does not need household sugar.
A look into the Book "Sugar-free living is worthwhile. In it you will find 25 delicious recipes.
Types of sugar at a glance
Refined sugar
White household sugar (sucrose) is usually obtained from sugar beets. One gram of white sugar contains about 4 calories.
If you consume the calories through fruit, then your body also gets vitamins and minerals that it desperately needs.
Sugar provides absolutely nothing except calories.
Raw cane sugar
It is also called raw sugar or whole cane sugar. Cane sugar is obtained from the sugar cane. It is grown in countries such as Brazil, Sweet Africa, Australia or Cuba.
The brownish color of the sugar is due to less mechanical processing. It still contains at least a few vanishing remnants of minerals and nutrients.
But that is so little that it is hardly worth mentioning.
How much sugar a day is healthy if you only eat raw cane sugar does not change the fact that sugar is fundamentally unhealthy.
It makes no sense to switch from white to raw cane sugar. 1 gram of whole cane sugar contains 3.9 calories.
Fructose
What most people forget: Fructose is also sugar. It occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables.
It contains the same number of calories as household sugar, but is sweeter. That's why you need less of it.
Now comes the problem: fructose from fruit is perfectly ok. After all, the fruits also provide us with vitamins.
Fructose, which is found in food, is unfortunately mostly industrially produced. It can promote obesity.
But if you eat 10 sweet bananas a day, sooner or later you will also gain a lot of weight. The middle course is the right one!
Our conclusion
How much sugar a day is okay? The less the better! Even if products in the supermarket tempt you with fruit spreads with "fructose", that doesn't mean it's healthy.
The less sweet we eat, the healthier it is for our bodies. It makes no difference whether you eat "healthy" raw cane sugar or white table sugar.
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