dietary sugar

Epidemiology

• average child's daily dietary sugar intake is 80 g/day

Complications

• excess weight gain, obesity
• dental caries

Management

• limit added dietary sugar to < 25 g/day (< 6 tsp/day) for children & adolescents
• recommended upper limit for dietary sugars
  • < 5% of total energy intake to reduce the risk for excess weight gain & dental cavities (< 1 soda)
• limit intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (soda) to one 8-oz serving/week
• avoid added dietary sugar in children < 2 years of age
• quality of data supporting guidelines to reduce dietary sugar is very low*

* industry-sponsored review questions guidelines on limiting sugar intake

• review funded by a trade group representing several large food & beverage companies, including Coca-Cola, Snapple, Hershey, & Pepsi
• editorialists reject the reviewers' conclusions

More general terms

• dietary carbohydrate

Additional terms

• diet
• excess sugar intake
• sugar-sweetened beverage