Cut your sugar intake to 25 grams a day if you can, says UN

If you've got a sweet tooth, you're not going to like this — even if you've already cut back significantly on your sugar intake.

 

The World Health Organization, the United Nations agency that concerns itself with global public health, released new guidelines on consumption of sugar Wednesday. Like a U.S. food panel last month, it recommends consuming no more than 10% of your calories from sugary substances — or roughly 50 grams of sugar for the average person. 

That much is no surprise; WHO expert panels have been tentatively suggesting the 10% sugar limit since 1989, and the current guidelines have been in a period of consultation for the past year. But for the first time, this WHO advisory went further in suggesting cuts to the amount of sweetness in your life.

Ideally, 5% of calories' worth of sugar — or 25 grams — is what you should really be aiming for, the organization now says, and not just if you're trying to avoid obesity or diabetes. Based on the fact that there have been a limited number of studies on the matter, the WHO presented the 25-gram advice as "conditional." 

"No evidence for harm associated with reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 5% of total energy intake was identified," the report said. But because of the widely-reported positive effects that reducing sugar below the 25-gram level had on tooth decay in both adults and children, and because those studies suggested a connection between ever-lower consumption of sugar and health, WHO says go for it. 

Fruit salad and dairy fans, don't worry. 

The organization isn't counting the sugars naturally present in regular old fruit or milk. But it is counting fruit juices and honey, no matter how natural.

The proposal may come as a shock to some — especially given that the average consumption level among Americans is a whopping 88 grams, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

There are slightly less than 25 grams of sugar in half a can of soda. Most yogurts contain around 24 grams per container. You can hit the WHO's suggested daily limit using foods you wouldn't even suspect, such as ketchup, which has about four grams in a single-serving dollop.

The Sugar Association slammed the new recommendations, not surprisingly. But even some neutral experts seemed incensed at the lower limit and the effect it might have on one's daily diet. 

"To get down to 5 percent, you wouldn't even be allowed to have orange juice," Tom Sanders, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, told the Associated Press. 

Well, yes — and that's kind of the point. Fruit juices have long been fingered as a source of way too much sugar. Our generous pours at the breakfast table don't help, especially not if we're already eating other sugary products. Sugar has permeated so much of what we eat and don't think twice about, from bread to pasta to cereal, that perhaps attempting to limit ourselves to 25 grams a day — even if we go over that target — could be an eye-opening and healthy exercise.