In short
The World Health Organization recommends keeping added sugar below 10% of daily energy, and ideally down to 5%. On a 2,000-calorie day that is 50 and 25 grams respectively — roughly 12 and 6 teaspoons. A single 330 ml soft drink contains about 35 grams, so most of the daily allowance can go in one can.
Added sugar and natural sugar are not the same thing
The fructose in fruit and the fructose added to a soft drink are chemically identical. The difference is the package it arrives in: in fruit, sugar comes with fibre, water and volume, and those three slow absorption and create fullness.
That is why nutrition guidance talks about “added sugar” rather than sugar. What is recommended for limiting is sugar added during production, or contributed as honey, syrup or fruit juice concentrate — not the sugar naturally present in fruit or milk.
The names on the label
Sugar is rarely written as “sugar” in an ingredients list. Everything below is added sugar, and a single product can contain several of them at once.
That creates the mechanism most people miss: ingredients are listed by weight, so splitting sugar across three different names pushes each one further down. A product where sugar should be first can show up as three separate entries in fourth, sixth and ninth place.
- Ending in -ose: glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, lactose, sucrose
- Syrups: glucose syrup, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, agave syrup, maple syrup
- The natural-sounding ones: honey, molasses, fruit juice concentrate, date syrup, malt extract
- Others: invert sugar, caramel, maltodextrin, cane juice, brown sugar, treacle
What “no added sugar” does and does not mean
The phrase says only that no sugar was separately added during production. It says nothing about how much sugar the product contains.
A bar sweetened with fruit juice concentrate can carry a “no added sugar” label while containing as much sugar, with the same effect on the body, as one sweetened with table sugar. Likewise “natural”, “organic” and “fit” have no legal meaning at all with respect to sugar content.
- “No added sugar”: none added in production; the product may still be naturally high in sugar.
- “Low sugar”: under 5 g per 100 g (2.5 g per 100 ml for drinks).
- “Sugar-free”: under 0.5 g per 100 g.
- “Sweetened with sweeteners”: artificial or natural sweeteners used instead of sugar.
The daily limit, and what we actually eat
The WHO recommendation is to keep added sugar under 10% of daily energy, with a further benefit at 5%. The table shows where common products sit against that limit.
| Product | Sugar | Share of the 10% limit |
|---|---|---|
| 330 ml soft drink | ~35 g | 70% |
| 200 ml fruit juice | ~20 g | 40% |
| 1 pot fruit yoghurt (150 g) | ~15 g | 30% |
| 2 tablespoons ketchup | ~8 g | 16% |
| 1 granola bar | ~10 g | 20% |
| 1 bowl of cereal (40 g) | ~9 g | 18% |
A practical approach
Cutting sugar out entirely is neither necessary nor, for most people, sustainable. The gain comes from targeting the largest sources — because most added sugar arrives through a small number of products.
Liquid calories come first by a wide margin. Unlike solid food, soft drinks and juice deliver a lot of sugar without producing fullness; swapping them for water is the single change that lowers daily sugar fastest.
- Start with liquids: changing what you drink has the largest single effect.
- Check sauces: ketchup, barbecue sauce and ready-made dressings carry unexpected amounts.
- Do not trust “fit” products: most bars and granolas are as sweet as confectionery.
- Read per 100 g: serving sizes make products hard to compare with each other.
Frequently asked questions
Are honey and molasses better than white sugar?
They contain trace minerals, but their calories and their effect on the body are nearly identical. There is no meaningful nutritional advantage, and both count as added sugar.
Does eating fruit count towards my sugar intake?
No. The recommendations do not cover whole fruit, where sugar comes packaged with fibre and water. Fruit juice does count, because the fibre has been removed.
Are sweeteners safe?
Approved sweeteners are considered safe within their established daily intake limits. They help reduce calories when moving away from sugar; research into long-term effects continues.
The label says “total sugars” — how do I find added sugar?
In the EU and many other markets the split is not mandatory. Read the ingredients list instead: the higher the sugar names appear and the more different names there are, the larger the added-sugar share.
Sources
- 1.
Te Morenga L, Mallard S, Mann J Dietary sugars and body weight: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies. BMJ, 346, e7492, 2013.
- 2.
World Health Organization Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2015.
- 3.
Malik VS, Pan A, Willett WC, Hu FB Sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain in children and adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 98(4), 1084-1102, 2013.
Reviewed by
Ecem Akkaba · Dietitian
Dietitian, graduate of İstanbul Medipol University. She develops the recipes and nutrition values on FitZen.