There is no official Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or Daily Values for sugar. However, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) advises adults who eat a 2,000-calorie diet to limit consumption of sugar to about 40 grams (10 teaspoons) of added sugars per day.
The 10 Percent Rule
According to the World Health Organization, no more than 10 percent of calories should come from added sweeteners. This advice is in line with the long-standing recommendations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture food pyramid, called for a maximum of 12 teaspoons of sugar (48 grams) in a 2,200-calorie diet, which translates to roughly 9 percent of daily calories.
In a diet composed of 2,000 daily calories, that would amount to about 200 calories, or 50 grams of sugar. Now you have another reason to check nutrition labels. Thanks to them, it's easy to find out the sugar content of common foods from candy bars to breakfast cereals. Those labels are definitely worth a read because the numbers can be surprising: A single bowl of Frosted Mini Wheat contains three teaspoons (12 grams) of sugar; some raisin bran contains 20 grams; a 32-ounce sports drink can contain 19 teaspoons (76 grams) of sugar, and a 20-ounce Fruitopia fruit drink can pack nearly 18 teaspoons (71 grams) of sugar -- nearly one and a half times as much as you should have in one day.
Though we should limit added sugar intake to 10 teaspoons (160 calories) or less per day, the average American eats at least twice that and most teenagers eat up to 35 teaspoons of sugar per day!
Ten teaspoons a day would convert to approximately 38 pounds of sugar a year. This would indicate that the average American is consuming more than four times the recommended amount of sugar each year.
Sugars Simple Math
1 teaspoon = 4 grams
1 Tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
1 teaspoon = 16 calories
Daily Sugar less than 10 teaspoons a day
To convert grams on Food Labels to teaspoons just divide the number of grams by 4.
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