The American Heart Association has come out with new challenge: Limit added sugars to no more than 25g (about 6 tsp) per day for women and 36g a day for men. Right now, we consume on average around three and a half times that much. Where did they come up with the numbers? The AHA reasons that “excessive consumption of added sugars is contributing to over-consumption of discretionary calories,” which, in turn, leads to obesity and increases heart disease risk. Discretionary calories are the ones we eat just for the fun of it and not necessarily to meet our nutritional needs. The USDA dietary guidelines recommend that these discretionary calories should be limited to 10% of total calories. The AHA figures that added sugars should make up no more than half of the discretionary calorie allowance. This new recommendation sets the bar on added sugars even lower than the “10% of calories” limit that was suggested a few years back by the World Health Organization.
— New guidelines lower the bar for added sugars even further | NutritionData.com Blog by Monica Reinagel, L.D.N., C.N.S.
