How much sugar per day is OK? WHO and AHA limits explained

The official numbers are smaller than most people expect. Here they are in grams and teaspoons, with what counts, what doesn't, and why it matters.

By the Sweet Nothing team · Updated October 5, 2026 · 7 min read

The daily limits at a glance

Two sets of guidelines get quoted most often. They measure slightly different things, but they land in the same place: a lot less sugar than the average diet contains.

What does "10% of daily energy" mean in practice? Sugar has about 4 calories per gram. On a 2,000-calorie day, 10% is 200 calories, or about 50 g of sugar. That's the upper limit. WHO's ideal, around 25 g, is half of that.

Note that these are limits, not targets. There's no daily amount of added sugar you need to eat. Your body gets all the energy it needs from the rest of your food.

Grams to teaspoons

Grams are hard to picture. Teaspoons are easier. A useful rule of thumb: 4 g of sugar is about one teaspoon.

Next time you see "sugars: 20 g" on a label, divide by four: that's five teaspoons. Picture spooning that into your coffee, and the number starts to mean something.

Free, added and natural sugar: what counts

This is where most of the confusion comes from. There are three terms, and they don't mean the same thing.

Added sugars

Sugar that's put into food during processing, cooking or at the table: table sugar, syrups, honey and the dozens of other forms in our list of hidden sugar names. This is what the American Heart Association limit is about.

Free sugars

WHO uses a slightly wider term. Free sugars are all added sugars plus the sugar naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates. In other words: juice counts, even if it's 100% fruit with nothing added.

Natural sugar in whole foods

The sugar inside whole fruit and plain milk doesn't count toward either limit. In whole fruit, it comes packed with fiber and water, so it's hard to overdo, and WHO doesn't count it as free sugar.

How fast it adds up

The limits look generous until you see where sugar shows up. A regular can of soda can hold 7 to 10 teaspoons of sugar, about 28 to 40 g. That's the whole day's ideal limit, or more, in one drink that doesn't even fill you up.

Then there's the sugar you don't notice: a flavored yogurt at breakfast, a cereal bar in the afternoon, a sweet sauce on dinner, a juice "because it's fruit". None of these feel like dessert, and together they can easily pass 25 g before you've eaten anything you'd call a treat.

Sugary drinks are one of the largest sources of added sugar, so they're the simplest place to start. Swap them for water, sparkling water, plain coffee or tea, and you've often solved most of the problem.

In Sweet Nothing: scan a barcode or take a photo of a food or its label, and the food scanner tells you if it fits your goal, if you should avoid it, or if it's unsure, and why. Barcode data comes from Open Food Facts.

How to read sugar on a label

The nutrition table usually shows total sugars, which mixes natural sugar from milk or fruit with added sugar. That's why plain yogurt shows some sugar even though nothing was added.

• In the US, the Nutrition Facts label also lists added sugars on a separate line. That's the number to compare with the AHA limit.
• In many other countries, the label only shows total sugars ("of which sugars"). Here, the ingredient list tells you more: if sugar or a syrup appears there, some of that number is added.

Either way, the ingredient list is your best friend. Our guide to hidden sugar has a 10-second label check you can use in any store.

Why the limits matter

Your teeth

Free sugars are a main cause of tooth decay, which WHO describes as the most common disease in the world. Every sugary snack or drink is another attack on your teeth, which is part of why the limits are so low.

Your heart

Large studies link eating more added sugar with a higher risk of heart disease and stroke. It's a long-term effect, the kind you don't feel today but that adds up over years.

Your weight

In a review of trials, people who ate less sugar lost about 0.8 kg on average, and people who ate more sugar gained weight. The effect came from calories: sugar is an easy way to eat a lot of energy without feeling full, especially in drinks. If sweets and sweet drinks are a big part of your day, cutting them may help more. Read how to quit sugar for a practical plan.

A simpler approach than counting grams

You can track grams of sugar every day, and some people like that. But counting is tiring, and "I still have 8 grams left" is a strange way to think about a cookie.

A clear rule is often easier to keep than a number. For example: no sweets and sweet drinks, or, one step further, no added sugar at all. Either rule keeps you well under the limits without a calculator, and there's no daily budget to negotiate with at 10 pm.

Whole fruit and plain dairy stay on the menu at both. If you go further and also skip diet drinks, you avoid trading one sweet habit for another. Here's why we skip sweeteners.

In Sweet Nothing: you pick one of these two goals, check in once a day (sugar-free or had sugar), and watch your sugar-free days add up. No gram counting needed. See how the app works.

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