Is 25 Grams of Sugar Enough? Lessons from a One-Month Experiment

Sugar is so delicious, isn’t it? I mean, not straight up or anything, but mixed into things like chocolate chips, chocolate cake, and chocolate bars and...well, I guess you can tell I like chocolate.

It’s not just in things like baked goods and candy, though; it’s in tons of beverages, coffee drinks, tomato sauces, ketchup, yogurt, salad dressings, and more.

Current recommendations for sugar intake

In recent years, the recommendation for total grams of added sugar has been lowered. The World Health Organization used to suggest that no more than 10% of your daily calories should come from it, and then they lowered it to 5%. For most women, that means about 25 grams of sugar per day, which equals 6 teaspoons. (Guys get about 9 teaspoons. Lucky.)

Although I’m actually a big fan of fruits, veggies, and whole grains and all that jazz, I do love me some baked goods. However, I am not a soda-drinker, and I don’t eat sweetened yogurts, so I thought keeping my intake to 25 grams or less per day would be pretty easy.

It wasn’t.

Navigating the daily challenge of reducing sugar intake

I don’t want to mislead you—it wasn’t torture and it wasn’t impossible, but it was a real challenge. I had to be super conscious of my choices all the time, which was honestly quite annoying. I did achieve my goal on most days, but certainly not all of them. If you’d like to keep your sugar intake low, too, here’s what I learned:

Watch out for liquid sugar

Avoid sweetened beverages. You probably already know this, but they add so many calories to your diet and, of course, to your sugar intake.

Mind your condiments and sauces

Measure out your condiments. I don’t eat ketchup all that often, but if I make home fries or sweet potato rounds, I like to dip them in ketchup, and the sugar in that little delicious red blob adds up quickly. It’s easy to think you’re just squirting out a serving when really you’ve got three or four on there. This is why you should measure.

Let’s talk about maple syrup. I’m a New England girl, so we only buy the real stuff, and I freaking love it. However, I know it’s all sugar, and if I pour it on my waffle or pancake, I’ll use way too much. Even if I put it in a dipping container to control my portion, if I don’t measure, it’s almost certain I’ll overestimate how much I’m about to consume. If you really want to stick to a limit, measuring will have to be part of your life.

Satisfy your sweet tooth strategically

Eat dark chocolate. One of the things that helped get me through the month with my sanity intact was 85% dark chocolate bars by Lindt. I know that’s too strong for some people, but a one-ounce serving only has 2.5 grams of sugar. Which means I can eat 10 oz of chocolate a day, right? Right?

Take control in your kitchen

Make your own baked goods. It stinks, but you can’t just go to a restaurant or store and buy a brownie and eat it all, because it probably has well over your total daily limit for sugar. Boom! Over the limit in one snack. The best way to avoid this is to just give up baked goods except for really special occasions, but another option is to start baking your own stuff. Honestly, many recipes still taste good with one-third less sugar than the recipe calls for. You can also try sweetening with applesauce, dates, or a sugar substitute like Stevia.

Final thoughts

Since the month ended, I admit I haven’t been counting my sugar grams, and I’ve probably gone over on multiple occasions. However, just writing this article makes me realize I need to get back into gear and keep an eye on my sugar intake, so maybe reading this article will do the same for you.

Have your eating habits changed since diagnosis?