Cutting down on sugar intake is really important for weight control. This is because it digests quickly and then is stored as fat if it’s not needed for energy. Apart from contributing to weight problems, a high sugar diet can lead to various other health problems such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately many people on Western diets have had a high sugar diet since childhood and find it hard to give up.
From childhood, sweet foods are often linked with comfort, rewards, or celebrations — birthday cake, treats for good behaviour, or a sugary snack when we’re upset. Over time, our brains learn to associate sweetness with pleasure, which can make us crave it more often. Sugar also triggers the release of dopamine, a “feel-good” chemical, in a way that’s similar to other rewarding experiences. While it’s not technically an addiction in the same way as drugs or alcohol, the combination of habit, emotional reinforcement and brain chemistry can make it very hard to cut back once we’re used to having a lot of sugar in our diet.
What is meant by “sugar” and why high sugar intake is a problem
“Sugar” is a word we use a lot but there are several things it can mean. Most often, when we say sugar, we mean the white (or sometimes brown) stuff we put in drinks and use for baking. But then we see other added sugars on ingredients labels, for example corn syrup, maltodextrin and maltose. Then their are the sugars naturally present in fruit and milk. All of these types of sugar come under the umbrella of “simple sugars”. You also have probably heard of blood sugar levels, which means the level of glucose in the blood.
The difference between sugars and complex carbohydrates
All sugars are a type of carbohydrate. What we call simple sugars are made up of just one or two units (molecules), whereas complex carbohydrates are made up of long strings of these units. Complex carbs are found in starchy foods like rice, past, potatoes and bread.
Why sugars cause a problem
No matter what form we eat carbohydrates in, they are broken down in our digestive systems and eventually end up being single units of glucose, which are then absorbed into our blood. We need our blood to have a certain level of glucose to give us the energy we need for everything we do. But our bodies keep our blood glucose within strict limits. Too much being in the blood isn’t good for us. So excess glucose is removed from the bloodstream and stored as fat. The sudden drop in blood sugar can, unfortunately, cause cravings for more sugar. From a health and weight control point of view, the main difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is that, because they are long chains, complex carbs take longer to digest and therefore don’t cause rapid increases in blood glucose.
So what is the white stuff?
The white (or brown) stuff we all call sugar is a type of carbohydrate called sucrose, which is made up of two carbohydrate units. It occurs naturally in two plants known as sugar cane and sugar beet. These are processed to produce a range of products including white sugar, brown sugar, treacle, syrup and molasses. We can buy them to add to foods ourselves and they are added to a wide range of manufactured foods, including some that you might find surprising (see below).
What other sugars do we need to worry about?
Sucrose is the sugar we’re all familiar with, but there are many other carbohydrates with a similar chemical structure that we need to limit our intake of.
Sugars that are marketed as being healthier
Some types of sugars are used in food products that are being marketed to the more health conscious consumer. The main ones are:
- Honey
- Agave syrup or nectar
- Maple syrup
- Date syrup
- Fruit syrup
- Coconut sugar
While some of these may digest very slightly more slowly than sucrose, or may contain a few beneficial minerals, they’re basically the same as sucrose in terms of the impact on health.
Other sugars you might see on labels
Glucose (also known as dextrose)
As mentioned above, all carbohydrates eventually end up being single glucose units in our bodies. It’s produced commercially by breaking down complex carbohydrates and it’s added to some processed foods such as energy drinks or baked goods.
Fructose
This sugar is naturally present in fruit. When eaten as part of the fruit, it is less of a problem (see below) but when extracted and added to processed foods it is another sugar we need to look out for.
Maltose
Production is similar to that of glucose. Common products it’s added to are beer and malted cereals.
Invert sugar
Made by further processing of sucrose. It is used in the manufacture of many sweet foods such as confectionery, baked goods and frozen desserts. It’s used not only for its sweetness but also for its smooth texture.
Chemically modified sugars
These ingredients don’t cause as much of a blood glucose spike and don’t have as many calories per gram as the sugars listed above. They are used in “sugar-free” goods, but are NOT artificial sweeteners. They are derived from sugars. Foods containing these should be still be eaten in moderation however. Eating excess will still cause blood sugar to rise and can also cause digestive issues. Examples of these sugars are:
- Sorbitol
- Xylitol
- Maltitol
- Erythritol
Other syrups
We’ve already covered various syrups above, but there are a few more. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and glucose syrup are common ingredients made by modifying starch naturally present in corn and other crops.
Bound sugars – healthy as long as intake isn’t excessive
Health organisations classify sugars as “bound” or “free”. Bound sugars are those that are naturally occurring and are intact within the foods. This only applies fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Sugars in this form don’t cause problems with blood sugar spikes and weight gain like the sugars discussed above. Note that the foods must be intact – if fruits have been turned into juices or syrups then the sugars are no longer bound.
So how much sugar is too much?
Most health guidelines regarding sugar are based on World Health Organisation recommendations which are that:
Daily calories from added sugars should not exceed 10% of total calorie intake and ideally should be below 5%
What is 5-10% of total calorie intake?
The advice in itself, is not particularly helpful. In order to know whether your calories from sugars exceed 10% of your total calorie intake you need to calculate
- Your total calorie intake
- How many calories came from sugars
- What percentage your calories from sugars are of your total calorie intake
Obviously working this out every day isn’t practical. Also, if you are eating too many calories overall, it actually works out to a higher allowance than if you were eating a healthy amount! You have 3 other options:
#1 Use the rough guideline
The maximum recommended amount for women is around 25g of “free” sugars per day. This is a very general amount that is based on an average daily calorie need. But, again, it’s not particularly helpful. You still have to add up your sugar intake to see if it is within the limit. To do this, you need to check food labels. If it’s something that you only eat a portion of, rather than the whole thing, then you need to know how much your portion weighs. If you use a diet tracking app this can help, but you’ll still need to know how much you’re eating of everything.
#2 Use food labelling
Note: information from FDA website, correct as at 4 November 2025
All packaged foods have nutrition information. Food labels give us the percentage a “portion” or “serving” would give us of the daily recommended intake. From the label above, we can see that a serving size of the product would give us 20% of our total recommended daily sugar intake. But, there are still problems:
- It is based on an average total calorie intake that doesn’t even differentiate between male and female.
- We would need to measure out the portion to make sure we are having the recommended size OR if we have a different size portion, multiply the percentage shown by the ratio of our portion size to the recommended one
- We still need to add up our percentages throughout the day and also include any sugar we’ve added into drinks, or sugar we’ve put in home baked items.
#3 use an app
There are various food tracking apps you can use. Most are available in both free and paid versions. Even the free versions typically allow you to scan the barcodes on packaged foods using your smartphone and automatically record their nutritional information, including sugar content. The apps usually calculate your recommended daily intake of energy and nutrients based on factors such as your age, sex, weight, height, activity level and personal goals. You can adjust portion sizes so that the nutrient information reflects the actual amount you consume, and you can also add foods that can’t be scanned—such as fresh ingredients, home-cooked meals or a spoonful of sugar in a drink—either by searching the database or entering the details manually.
So apps are the easiest option, but even so there’s a bit of work involved. You still need to weigh your portion sizes out and manually search for foods you can’t scan.
Cutting down on simple sugar intake isn’t simple!
If it all sounds like too much trouble to work out your sugar intake what should you do? Well, there’s a good chance you’re eating too much sugar, especially if you’re overweight. Western diets are very sugar loaded and unless you’re already making an effort and checking labels, your sugar intake probably is too high. Remember, we don’t actually need added sugar at all. 0% a day is the ideal. Cutting back is a good move even if you’re not sure what your current intake is. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Tips for cutting down on sugar intake:
#1 Cut down on sugar in hot drinks
This is an obvious one because we’re adding pure sugar to the drink. The 25g limit would only be 5 spoonfuls, so a few hot drinks with sugar would quickly bring you close to your daily limit. The good news is that people generally find it quite easy to gradually reduce how much sugar they’re adding. If you reduce the amount of sugar you add to drinks a little at a time, you won’t notice the difference. Often, once people have cut sugar out completely, they really don’t like the taste of sugar in their drinks.
#2 Choose low sugar breakfast cereal
If you eat breakfast cereal, check the sugar content and see if you can find a lower sugar cereal you like. Cereals can be surprisingly high in sugar. Look for cereals with less than 10% total sugars.
# 3 Avoid high sugar drinks
Try to avoid fizzy soft drinks (soda) and squash altogether. Regular versions are packed with sugar. Sugar free versions are sweetened with artificial sweeteners. While these don’t carry the health risks associated with sugar, they still encourage your body to crave sweet things. They are also completely unnatural and the drinks are also usually full of other unnatural ingredients.
#4 Look out for hidden sugars
Identify any “hidden” sugars or sugars in foods and try to cut down on these foods. There are often hidden sugars in foods we might think are healthy choices
- Sauces and dressings
- Soups
- Breads and other bakery products
- Cereal bars
- Fruit yoghurts
- Baked beans
- Crackers
- Sushi
Start getting used to checking labels. The nutrition label (see above) will give you the total added sugar, as well as what percentage this is of the recommended daily intake.
#5 Cut down on your sugar intake from snacks
What you eat between meals can push your daily sugar intake up significantly. Biscuits (cookies), chocolate snack bars, cereal bars, sweets, ice cream, cake and pastries are all high sugar. Savoury snacks like crisps (chips) are low sugar, but not necessarily healthy options since they are fairly high fat and high salt. Fresh or dried fruits, unsalted nuts, natural yoghurt and extra dark chocolate are good choices. Better choices for bakery items than cake and pastries are scones, teacakes and fruit loaf.
#6 Avoid sweets/candy altogether
Sweets (candy) are the worst sugary foods. They have no nutritional value (other than energy) and will give you a brief sugar high followed by craving more. They also usually contain lots of unnatural additives Avoid them as much as possible.
Beyond reducing sugar intake
Cutting down your sugar intake will go a long way towards being a healthy weight and protecting your health. However, there’s another level! If you really want to fine tune the effect your diet has on your blood sugar levels, you need to consider the glycaemic index of foods. If you want to learn more, you can read about GI here.
Related to sugar intake
