Now experts believe added sugar has no nutritional value (without minerals, vitamins, essential fats, proteins,) and shouldn’t be consumed more than 30 grams a day. But with, tea, coffee, fizzy drinks, biscuits, chocolates, cakes, ice creams and many other food items we are consuming much more than that every day, which is leading to obesity and health conditions like diabetes and heart diseases. Sugar is full of calorie and if you are trying to lose weight you need to curb calorie consumption and hence you need to avoid added sugar. This advice is not only for overweight people, even lean and healthy adults and children should limit sugar consumption.
So how to meet calorie needs
Yes you need calories but that should come from fruits, vegetables and starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and cereals. Only 5% calorie may come from sugar for sugary foods, which means our sugar consumption shouldn’t be more than 30 grams; for children aged between 4 to 6 years its 19 grams and for children aged between 7 to 10 years its 24 grams.
|
Age |
Sugar consumption limit |
|
4-6 years |
19 grams |
|
7-10 years |
24 grams |
|
Adults |
30 grams |
Sugar can cause addiction
Sugar fuels your brain cells and triggers release of dopamine which is like reward for your brain and asks for more. So you are likely to be addicted to sugar and food manufacturers know it so they are using more and more sugar.
Sugar is bad for your teeth, causes tooth decay
Free sugar gives easy energy for bacteria in your mouth and these bacteria lead tooth decay in your mouth.
How to prevent sugar related tooth decay
Sugar from natural sources like fruits is less likely to cause tooth decay because that sugar isn’t free but fruit juice may be harmful so try to limit fruit and vegetable juice and it shouldn’t be more than 150 milliliter per day. Few more cautions is required, dried fruits has a tendency to stick with teeth. So don’t take deserts, dried fruits as snacks between meals. It should be part of your meal.
Its sugar not fat leading to heart disease
Recent studies show increased sugar intake increases harmful LDL cholesterol, sugar and insulin level in your blood stream (Ref).
Liver disease
Fructose is turned into fat in our liver and excess fat can cause liver disease which is known as Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). It is found that people with this disease had a tendency to consume excessive fructose.
