Sugar

Eating too much sugar can make you gain weight and can also cause tooth decay.

The type of sugars most adults and children in the UK eat too much of are called “free sugars”.  These are:

• any sugars added to food or drinks. These include sugars in biscuits, chocolate, flavoured yoghurts, breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks. These sugars may be added at home, or by a chef or other food manufacturer. 
• sugars in honey, syrups (such as maple, agave and golden), nectars (such as blossom), and unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies. The sugars in these foods occur naturally but still count as free sugars.

Sugar found naturally in milk, fruit and vegetables does not count as free sugars. We do not need to cut down on these sugars, but remember that they are included in the “total sugar” figure found on food labels.

For some simple sugar swap ideas to help your child cut back on their sugar intake click here.  Although there is no guideline sugar limit for children under the age of 4 years, it is recommended that they avoid sugar-sweetened drinks and food with sugar added to it.

When you are looking at nutritional labels try to avoid or limit food or drinks with more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g of food (this will be red if the food has a traffic light label). Instead go for foods/drinks with less than 5g of total sugars per 100g or less as much as possible.   

There are many different names for sugar which can be found on ingredients lists. These include cane sugar, honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate/purées, corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, glucose, crystalline sucrose, nectars (such as blossom), maple and agave syrups, dextrose, maltose, molasses and treacle.