How many grams of sugar should I eat daily?
By daljruiz1
@daljruiz1 (14)
United States
April 26, 2011 6:41am CST
I've already cut the high fructose corn syrup from my diet, but I'm still at a loss as to how much sugar I should consume. Any thoughts?
4 responses
@dubagee (34)
• United States
10 May 11
It's great that you cut out HFCS from your diet!!! The only type of sugar you should be eating is the sugar from vegetables because it's marginal and you do need a TINY BIT of sugar for your body to function. If you cannot fathom not eating fruit, then stick with the low sugar varieties such as apples, pears, kiwi, berries, things like that.
@IyanMuska (602)
• Indonesia
26 Apr 11
Do not consume too much sugar can be dangerous, if you are a fan of food or beverages that have a fairly high sugar content Balance with a good idea to drink at least 8 glasses of water and sports tight. Hopefully help
@owlwings (43914)
• Cambridge, England
26 Apr 11
According to the American Heart Association, the recommended daily intake is as follows:
Men: 36 grams or 9 teaspoons
Women: 20 grams or 5 teaspoons
Children: 12 grams or 3 teaspoons
You should be aware that sugar is pure carbohydrate and that many foods contain sugar both naturally and added. It is really your total carbohydrate intake (both sugar and starches) that you should monitor. Since these provide energy and any carbohydrate not used by muscles is stored as fat, your carbohydrate intake (measured in calories or KCals) should be about equal to your energy requirements for the day (rather less if you wish to lose weight).
This article might be useful (though saying that "consuming excess sugar is ... the main culprit behind diabetes" is too much of a generalisation and not really correct): http://www.buzzle.com/articles/recommended-daily-sugar-intake.html
@petersum (4522)
• United States
26 Apr 11
That's not an easy question because sugar is not the only thing to worry about. Starch is also converted into sugars within the body. So watch out for those potatoes and rice!
As almost every processed food contains sugar of some kind, I don't think you could ever actually measure your sugar intake in grams.
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