How Much Sugar Per Day? Limits for Added and Free Sugars

The World Health Organization recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of your daily calories, and ideally below 5%, which is about 25 g (6 teaspoons) a day. In the UK, the NHS sets the adult limit at 30 g of free sugars a day. These limits apply to sugars added to food and drink plus the sugar in honey, syrups and fruit juice, not to the sugar naturally found in whole fruit, vegetables and plain milk.

So when you ask “how much sugar per day”, the real question is which sugar. This guide explains the difference, compares the main guidelines, and shows how to track sugar without reading every label twice.

Free sugars, added sugars and total sugars

These three terms sound similar but mean different things.

• Added sugars: sugars and syrups put into food by a manufacturer, cook or you at home, such as table sugar, glucose syrup or high-fructose corn syrup.
• Free sugars: added sugars plus the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. This is the term WHO, EFSA and the NHS use.
• Total sugars: every sugar in a food, including the natural sugars in whole fruit, vegetables and milk. This is the “of which sugars” or “Total Sugars” figure on most labels.

WHO’s guideline does not cover sugars in fresh fruit and vegetables or naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of harm from them. The NHS makes the same point: a medium apple may have around 11 g of sugar, and plain yogurt may have up to 8 g per serving from milk, but none of that counts as free sugar.

How much sugar per day: the main guidelines

Guideline	Recommended limit	What that means in grams
WHO (2015)	Free sugars below 10% of energy (strong); below 5% for extra benefit (conditional)	Below 50 g on 2,000 kcal; about 25 g at 5%
NHS (UK)	Free sugars no more than 5% of energy	Adults: 30 g a day
EFSA (2022)	Added and free sugars as low as possible in a nutritionally adequate diet	No upper limit could be set
Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030	No amount of added sugar is recommended; one meal should have no more than 10 g of added sugar	About 10 g per meal at most
American Heart Association (via Harvard)	Added sugars: about 100 kcal a day for most women, 150 kcal for most men	About 24 g (6 tsp) for women, 36 g (9 tsp) for men

The guidelines do not disagree much. All of them say that most people would benefit from eating less free or added sugar, and several converge around 25 to 36 g a day for adults.

Why WHO chose these limits: its review found that adults who eat less sugar have lower body weight, that eating more sugar is linked with weight gain, and that tooth decay is more common when free sugars go above 10% of energy. The 5% target is marked “conditional” because it rests on fewer studies, mostly about dental health.

EFSA’s 2022 assessment reached a similar conclusion from another angle. It found that sugar is a known cause of tooth decay, and it linked sugar-sweetened drinks, juices and nectars, with varying certainty, to obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes. It could not set a safe upper limit, so it advised keeping added and free sugars as low as possible.

Children

The NHS sets lower daily limits for free sugars in children: 24 g at ages 7 to 10, 19 g at 4 to 6, 14 g at 2 to 3, and 10 g at age 1. Babies under 1 should not have sugar added to food or drinks. The 2025 to 2030 US guidelines go further and recommend no added sugars at all during infancy, early childhood and middle childhood up to age 10.

Where the sugar hides

Much of the sugar people eat is not from the sugar bowl. WHO gives two examples: a tablespoon of ketchup has about 4 g of free sugars, and a single can of sugar-sweetened soda can have up to 40 g. Using USDA FoodData Central values:

Food or drink	Portion	Sugars (about)
Regular cola	330 ml can	34 g
Orange juice	150 ml glass	13 g
Honey	1 tablespoon (21 g)	17 g
Ketchup	1 tablespoon (17 g)	4 g
White sugar	1 teaspoon (4.2 g)	4 g

One can of cola alone is more than the NHS limit of 30 g for a whole day. Orange juice is also a source of free sugars, even when it is 100% juice with nothing added; the NHS recommends no more than 150 ml of juice or smoothie a day, drunk with a meal.

The NHS names other common sources: biscuits, chocolate, flavoured yogurts, breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks.

How to spot sugar on a label

Labels help, but you need to know how to read them. Our guide on how to read nutrition labels goes deeper; here are the essentials from the NHS:

• High sugar: more than 22.5 g of total sugars per 100 g.
• Low sugar: 5 g or less of total sugars per 100 g.
• Ingredients list: ingredients are listed from most to least. If sugar is near the top, the food is probably high in free sugars.
• Other names for sugar: cane sugar, brown sugar, honey, glucose, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, molasses, agave or maple syrup.

The US guidelines add a simple trick: look for ingredients that contain the word “sugar” or “syrup”, or end in “-ose”. Harvard also notes that 4 g of sugar is about 1 teaspoon, which makes label numbers easier to picture.

A worked example: one ordinary day

Here is a typical day, with free sugars estimated from USDA data:

• Coffee with 2 teaspoons of sugar: 2 × 4.2 = 8.4 g
• Porridge with 1 tablespoon of honey: 17 g
• A 150 ml glass of orange juice: 13 g
• 1 tablespoon of ketchup with lunch: 3.6 g

Total: 8.4 + 17 + 13 + 3.6 = 42 g of free sugars. That is above the NHS limit of 30 g, though below 50 g, WHO’s 10% ceiling for someone eating 2,000 kcal.

Now three small swaps:

• 1 teaspoon of sugar in coffee: 4.2 g
• 1 teaspoon of honey on porridge (about 7 g of honey): 5.7 g
• Water instead of juice: 0 g
• Ketchup unchanged: 3.6 g

New total: 4.2 + 5.7 + 0 + 3.6 = 13.5 g. The day still includes sweetness, and it now sits well under both the NHS and WHO’s 5% targets.

Practical ways to eat less sugar

1. Start with drinks. Harvard lists sugar-sweetened drinks among the leading sources of added sugar in the US diet. Swap them for water, sparkling water, or tea and coffee without sugar; see how much water to drink a day.
2. Cut the sugar in hot drinks gradually, as the NHS suggests, until you stop noticing it.
3. Choose plain yogurt and add fruit yourself.
4. Pick unsweetened breakfast cereals that are not frosted or coated with honey or chocolate.
5. Choose tinned fruit in juice, not syrup.
6. Plan your sweet snacks. Whole fruit with yogurt or nuts is a good option; our list of healthy snacks under 200 calories has ideas.
7. Track for a week. PixNutri estimates sugar alongside calories, protein, carbs, fat and fibre when you photograph a meal, and the barcode scanner reads the label values for packaged foods. Photo estimates are approximate, so treat them as a way to spot patterns (for example, how much comes from drinks) rather than exact grams.

Sugar also carries calories: about 4 kcal per gram. Cutting 30 g of free sugars a day removes roughly 120 kcal, which can make a real difference to how many calories you eat a day.

If you have diabetes or take medication that affects blood sugar, speak with your doctor or a registered dietitian about your personal carbohydrate and sugar targets.

FAQ

How many grams of sugar per day is healthy?

For free or added sugars, aim for no more than about 25 to 30 g a day as an adult. That matches WHO’s 5% target and the NHS limit of 30 g. Sugars in whole fruit, vegetables and plain milk do not count towards this.

Does sugar in fruit count towards the daily limit?

Not in whole fruit. WHO and the NHS only count free sugars. Fruit juice, smoothies and purées do count, because blending or juicing releases the sugars.

Is honey healthier than sugar?

Honey counts as a free sugar, just like table sugar. A tablespoon of honey has about 17 g of sugars, so use it sparingly.

How many teaspoons of sugar a day?

About 6 teaspoons (25 g) is WHO’s ideal limit for free sugars, and the NHS limit of 30 g is roughly 7 sugar cubes.

Is it OK to eat no added sugar at all?

Yes. No guideline sets a minimum amount of added sugar. EFSA advises keeping added and free sugars as low as possible within a nutritionally adequate diet, and the new US guidelines say no amount of added sugar is recommended.