Six spoonfuls of sugar is maximum daily amount to keep healthy, experts say

05 April 2023 , 22:30

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Eating too much sugar increases the risk of a range of conditions (Image: Love Sunday)

No more than six teaspoons of added sugar should be consumed daily to stay healthy, an international review has found.

Scientists from the US and China looked at how much “free sugars” added to food and drinks impact upon 83 health outcomes.

They found that eating too much increased the risk of 45, including asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, depression, some cancers and death.

Depression was particularly strongly linked with high sugar intake according to the review of 67 of observational studies and six clinical trials published in the BMJ.

It concluded that free sugars should be capped at around six teaspoons a day and recommended limiting sugar-sweetened drinks to one a week.

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

Scientists recommend carefully moderating our sugar intake (Getty Images/Mint Images RF)

Author Liangren Liu, associate professor at West China Hospital, said: “This umbrella review shows that high dietary sugar consumption, especially intake of sugars that contain fructose, is harmfully associated with large numbers of health outcomes.

“We recommend reducing the consumption of free sugars or added sugars to below 25g per day.

“To change sugar consumption patterns, especially for children and adolescents, a combination of widespread public health education and policies worldwide is urgently needed.”

Free sugar is any added to a food or drink but also includes that already in honey, syrup and fruit juice.

These are considered free sugar because they are no longer contained inside the cells of food.

Natural sugars contained in fruit and vegetables do not have the same negative effect on our health and come with extra nutrients such as fibre.

Outcomes significantly increased by high sugar intake included high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

The risk of seven cancers were raised including breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

Martin Bagot