Reducing sugar

Sugar has been a lifelong treat for most of us, but now we are putting our health at risk by over-consuming this addictive ingredient. The World Health Organization recommends that adults get no more than 5% of their calories from refined sugar, which is about 6 teaspoons. The National Diet and Nutrition Survey estimates that people in the UK consume around 15 teaspoons of sugar per day, whilst in the US the total is around 46 teaspoons – that is a lot of sugar!

Research indicates quite clearly that sugar has an addictive quality. Sugar is known as an anti-nutrient – to enable the body to process it, other nutrients must be used, and this could mean a deficiency in some important nutrients – but sugar itself provides empty calories, with no nutritional value at all. It’s important to stress that this refers to the refined sugar added to your food and drink and not the naturally occurring sugar in foods such as fruits, vegetables and grains. But as we should be getting enough sugar from natural foods anyway, additional sugar isn’t usually necessary in our diets.