How to eat less added sugar and lower your risk of health issues
Hidden in everything from breakfast cereals to your favourite sandwich bread, added sugar is a nearly unavoidable part of our modern diet. Although reducing your intake might seem overwhelming, the health benefits make it worth the effort. Research shows excessive sugar intake increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and other health issues, according to the American Heart Association.
Women should limit added sugars to 25 grams, or six teaspoons a day, while men should limit their intake to 36 grams (1.27 oz). However, many Americans consume an average of 17 teaspoons per day.
'I don't have a sweet tooth,' ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr Jennifer Ashton wrote in her book The Self-Care Solution , 'but when I really examined how much sugar I was eating, I was shocked.'
If health experts can be surprised by their sugar intake, we could all use some practical strategies.
Here are a few recommendations to get you started, according to Everyday Health. The nutrition label on a box of cereal shows it has 12 grams of added sugar per serving. In the US these added sugars are listed separately. Photo: Shutterstock
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
18-07-2025
- RTHK
Trump pulls US from World Health pandemic reforms
Trump pulls US from World Health pandemic reforms US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy is a long-time critic of vaccines. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump's administration said on Friday the United States was rejecting changes agreed last year for the World Health Organization on its pandemic response, saying they violated US sovereignty. Trump, on returning to office on January 20, immediately began the withdrawal of the United States from the UN body, but the State Department said the language from last year would still have been binding on the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy, who is a longtime critic of vaccines, said that the changes "risk unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy." "We will put Americans first in all our actions, and we will not tolerate international policies that infringe on Americans' speech, privacy or personal liberties," they said in a joint statement. Rubio and Kennedy disassociated the United States from a series of amendments to the International Health Regulations, which provide a legal framework for combating diseases, agreed last year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The amendments included a stated "commitment to solidarity and equity" in which a new group would study the needs of developing countries in future emergencies. Countries have until Saturday to lodge reservations about the amendments. Conservative activists and vaccine sceptics in Britain and Australia, which both have left-leaning governments, have waged public campaigns against the changes. The amendments came about when the Assembly failed at a more ambitious goal of sealing a new global agreement on pandemics. Most of the world finally sealed a treaty this May, but the United States did not participate as it was in the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization. The United States, then under President Joe Biden, took part in the May-June 2024 negotiations, but said it could not support consensus as it demanded protections for US intellectual property rights on vaccine development. Rubio's predecessor, Antony Blinken, had welcomed the amendments as progress. (AFP)
RTHK
18-07-2025
- RTHK
Trump pulls US from World Health pandemic reforms
Trump pulls US from World Health pandemic reforms US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy is a long-time critic of vaccines. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump's administration said on Friday the United States was rejecting changes agreed last year for the World Health Organization on its pandemic response, saying they violated US sovereignty. Trump, on returning to office on January 20, immediately began the withdrawal of the United States from the UN body, but the State Department said the language from last year would still have been binding on the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy, who is a longtime critic of vaccines, said that the changes "risk unwarranted interference with our national sovereign right to make health policy." "We will put Americans first in all our actions, and we will not tolerate international policies that infringe on Americans' speech, privacy or personal liberties," they said in a joint statement. Rubio and Kennedy disassociated the United States from a series of amendments to the International Health Regulations, which provide a legal framework for combating diseases, agreed last year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The amendments included a stated "commitment to solidarity and equity" in which a new group would study the needs of developing countries in future emergencies. Countries have until Saturday to lodge reservations about the amendments. Conservative activists and vaccine sceptics in Britain and Australia, which both have left-leaning governments, have waged public campaigns against the changes. The amendments came about when the Assembly failed at a more ambitious goal of sealing a new global agreement on pandemics. Most of the world finally sealed a treaty this May, but the United States did not participate as it was in the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization. The United States, then under President Joe Biden, took part in the May-June 2024 negotiations, but said it could not support consensus as it demanded protections for US intellectual property rights on vaccine development. Rubio's predecessor, Antony Blinken, had welcomed the amendments as progress. (AFP)
South China Morning Post
01-06-2025
- South China Morning Post
How eating whole food, plant-based proteins lowers the risk of having high blood pressure
Eating more minimally processed plant-based proteins – such as beans, nuts and lentils – may lower the risk for high blood pressure, according to new research. Advertisement The study, published recently in the Journal of the American Heart Association, also suggested that minimally processed animal proteins could be included in weekly meal plans without significantly affecting a person's high blood pressure risk 'Our study focused on foods, not the plant-based supplements that can be found on store shelves,' said the study's senior author Dr Marcia Otto, a nutritional epidemiologist and an associate professor at UT Health Houston School of Public Health in the US state of Texas. Nearly half of all adults in the US have high blood pressure, or hypertension, a condition that raises the risk for heart attacks strokes and other health problems. Tofu and soybeans are good sources of plant-based proteins. Photo: Shutterstock Prior research has shown diet plays a critical role in the prevention and management of high blood pressure.
